GAITHERSBURG, Md., April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Zyngenia, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing Zybodies™, next-generation multi-specific antibody-based drugs in oncology and immunology, announced today that it has appointed David Parkinson, M.D. as a member of its Board of Directors and head of its Clinical Advisory Board. Dr. Parkinson will also serve as Interim Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

"Since our start in September 2009, we at Zyngenia have validated our technology platform and developed a suite of novel multi-specific biological drug candidates.  We have also built an outstanding drug discovery and development team," said Zyngenia President and CEO Peter A. Kiener, D.Phil. "We have been working with David Parkinson as a member of our scientific advisory group for some time now and, as we head toward clinical testing of our Zybodies, are thrilled to be able to get such an accomplished drug developer, company builder and leader in oncology and immunology more directly involved with Zyngenia.  David brings tremendous expertise from his leadership roles at Nodality, Biogen Idec, Amgen, Novartis and the National Cancer Institute and has direct experience developing numerous important cancer therapeutics including Gleevec®, Femara®, Zometa®, Kepivance®, and Vectibix®.  We look forward to his contributions to Zyngenia's success."

"I am excited to join the Zyngenia team and look forward to working with the organization as we bring these potentially game-changing multi-specific drugs to patients," said Dr. Parkinson. "The ability of Zybodies to target multiple disease pathways simultaneously while retaining the established advantages of antibody-based approaches can enable heretofore-unprecedented approaches to the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Zyngenia, with its experienced and accomplished team, its potent drug discovery platform, and its committed financial backers, is poised to make significant contributions in these therapeutic areas."

About David Parkinson, M.D.

From 2007 until 2012, Dr. Parkinson served as President and CEO of Nodality, a South San Francisco-based venture-financed biotechnology company developing technologies to enable personalized medicine and more efficient drug development in cancer and autoimmune diseases.  Before joining Nodality, Dr. Parkinson was Senior Vice President, Oncology R&D, at Biogen Idec, overseeing oncology discovery research efforts and the development of the oncology pipeline. Previously he had served tenures as Vice President and Head of the Oncology Therapeutic Area at Amgen and Vice President and Head of Global Clinical Oncology Development at Novartis. During his tenures at Amgen and Novartis, Dr. Parkinson was responsible for clinical development activities leading to a series of successful global drug registrations for important cancer therapeutics.

Prior to joining industry, Dr. Parkinson worked at the National Cancer Institute from 1990 to 1997, serving as Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch, then as Acting Associate Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program. He had previously held academic positions at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas and New England Medical Center of Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.

Dr. Parkinson received his M.D. as gold medalist from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1977, with Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology training at McGill University and at New England Medical Center. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and is a past Chairman of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Biologics Advisory Committee as well as a recipient of the FDA's Cody Medal. He is a past President of the International Society of Biological Therapy, and past Editor of the Journal of Immunotherapy.  He has recently completed terms as a member of the FDA's Science Board, the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine.

From 2008 to 2009, Dr. Parkinson was a Director of Facet Biotech, Inc., until its sale to Abbott Pharmaceuticals.  He currently serves as co-chair of the Cancer Steering Committee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Foundation Biomarkers Consortium and is Chairman of the AACR Finance Committee.  In addition, he currently serves as a Director on the Board of Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as well as on the boards of the non-profits Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research (OICR).

About Zyngenia, Inc.

Zyngenia, Inc. is a privately held biotherapeutics company focused on the development of next-generation multi-specific antibody-based therapeutics. The Company uses proprietary patented technology to engineer single molecular entities that interact with two or more targets. The multiple target strategy has created many opportunities for innovative therapeutics with new mechanisms of action that are not achievable with single specificity antibodies. The company has initially focused its Zybody™ development on therapies for various cancers and autoimmune disorders. Zyngenia, whose lead investor is New Enterprise Associates, is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. For more information, visit www.zyngenia.com.

* Gleevec, Zometa and Femara are registered trademarks of Novartis. Kepivance is a registered trademark of Biovitrum and Amgen. Vectibix is a registered trademark of Amgen.

SOURCE Zyngenia, Inc.