SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 6, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (FivePrime), a leader in the discovery and development of innovative biologics, announced today that it has confirmed the appointment of Lewis T. “Rusty” Williams, MD, PhD, the Founder of FivePrime, as President and Chief Executive Officer and appointed Brian Atwood as Chairman of the Board. Dr. Williams has functioned as FivePrime’s President and Chief Executive Officer since August 2011. Mr. Atwood has served as a member of the Board of Directors of FivePrime since May 2002.
“I am delighted to have the opportunity to work more closely with Rusty and the rest of the executive team in my new role as Chairman of the Board,” said Mr. Atwood. “I believe FivePrime has bright prospects with an exciting and expanding pipeline of antibody and protein therapeutics with an industry-leading discovery platform. The Board strongly endorsed the confirmation of Rusty as FivePrime’s CEO and we have great confidence in Rusty’s leadership and FivePrime’s executive team.”
“Brian has actively served on our Board and has a distinguished career both operationally and as a leading venture capitalist,” said Dr. Williams. “I am very pleased that Brian has agreed to serve as our Chairman of the Board. FivePrime will greatly benefit from his contributions as we advance into the next phase of our pipeline development.”
Dr. Williams founded FivePrime in 2002. Prior to founding FivePrime, Dr. Williams was Chief Scientific Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Chiron Corporation and President of Chiron Technologies. Prior to joining Chiron, Dr. Williams was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of California, San Francisco. Earlier in his career he was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and was a staff cardiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Williams is a co-founder of COR Therapeutics, Inc., and served as a member of its Board of Directors. He served on the Boards of Duke University and Beckman Coulter Corporation and is currently on the Board of the Berklee College of Music and Rice University.
Dr. Williams received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University and trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Mr. Atwood co-founded Versant Ventures, a leading healthcare-focused venture capital firm, where he serves as a Managing Director. He also has more than 15 years of operating experience in the biotechnology industry. Prior to launching his career in venture capital, Mr. Atwood was Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Glycomed, a publicly traded biotechnology company. Mr. Atwood also currently serves as a Board member at the private companies Veracyte, Inc., OpGen, Inc., PhaseRx, Inc., Immune Design Corp. and Groove BioPharma Corp. (formerly Mirina Corporation), as well as the public companies, Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CADX), Clovis Oncology, Inc. (CLVS) and Trius Therapeutics, Inc. (TSRX).
Mr. Atwood received a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, an MS in Ecology from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About FivePrime
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage, privately held, biotechnology company with a strong pipeline of antibodies and ligand traps for cancer, autoimmunity and respiratory diseases. FivePrime has differentiated discovery capabilities built on its comprehensive library of secreted and extracellular human proteins, which it leverages in cell-based assays, in vivo models and receptor-ligand matching screens to identify medically relevant new targets and therapeutic proteins. FivePrime has entered into a collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize its lead product, FP-1039 (HGS1036), with Human Genome Sciences, Inc. in the United States, Canada and the EU. FivePrime has also established significant collaborations for the discovery of innovative biologics in specific therapeutic areas with several leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Centocor and GlaxoSmithKline. For more information about FivePrime, please visit FivePrime’s web site at www.fiveprime.com.
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CONTACT: Amy Kendall, Corporate Communications
415-365-5776
amy.kendall@fiveprime.com
