IDC secures $32 million in Series B financing

Immune Design Corp. (IDC), a privately held biotechnology company focused on developing novel vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious disease and cancer, announced today that it has secured $32 million in Series B financing.  The round was led by ProQuest Investments and was joined by current investors: The Column Group, Versant Ventures, and Alta Partners.  The Series B financing brings the total amount of equity capital raised by IDC to $50 million since its inception in 2008.

As part of the financing, ProQuest general partner, Alain Schreiber, M.D., will join IDC as its newest board member.  He remarked, "I am delighted to be given the opportunity to work with the IDC team.  I have been impressed by the innovative science, experienced management, and strong financial backing IDC has garnered to date.  I look forward to contributing to the IDC efforts that could generate multiple products addressing medically important needs."

Steven Reed, Ph.D., IDC's co-founder and Chief Executive Officer commented, "Our strong team of investors, combined with the addition of ProQuest and the appointment of Dr. Schreiber to our board, further validates the exciting potential of our technology platforms and our vision to develop and commercialize breakthrough vaccine products worldwide.  The closing of the Series B provides resources for accelerating IDC's lead candidates through clinical studies and further expanding development of new vaccines and therapeutics."

IDC is advancing an innovative vaccine pipeline utilizing its two proprietary technologies which include GLA, a novel, synthetic, toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) agonist, which is a clinical stage adjuvant being developed as a component in multiple internal and partnered vaccine programs; and DC-NILV, a novel delivery vector engineered to target human dendritic cells and express target antigens and immunomodulatory elements to elicit functional and broad based immunity, which is initially being applied in cancer indications of significant unmet need.