ProQuest Investments Leads $32 Million in Series B Funding for Immune Design Corp.

Based in Seattle, Washington, Immune Design Corp. is a biotechnological company which is privately held and designs vaccines which can prevent infectious diseases and immune therapies that can help in the treatment of cancer. The company announced on July 26, 2010 that it has just secured series B funding with ProQuest Investments leading the funding round. Other investors who participated in this funding round include existing investors the Column Group, Versant Ventures, and Alta Partners. This funding round brings the total of funding raised by Immune Design Corp. up to $50 million since it was founded in 2008.

Proceeds from this funding round will go to the company’s advancement of its innovative vaccine pipeline that is targeted to certain cancers and other dangerous viruses. As part of the agreement of this funding round, Dr. Alain MD will be joining Immune Design Corp’s board of directors. Dr. Schreiber is a general partner of ProQest Investments and as far as he is concerned, he is delighted to have the opportunity to be able to work with the outstanding management team of Immune Design Corp., and Dr. Schreiber also added that is constantly impressed by the innovative technologies that Immune Design Corp. is constantly developing. Furthermore, the proprietary science that Immune Design Corp. has combined together with the company’s tremendous management team has allowed Immune Design to garner enormous financial backing, providing a great investment opportunity for ProQuest Investments.

Immune Design’s cofounder and CEO, Steven Reed also added that the company has a strong team of investors and having the addition of another powerful investment firm, such as ProQuest Investments; and having Dr. Schreiber from ProQuest joining Immune Design’s board of directors is a great asset to the company and the funding also validates the strong potential of Immune Design’s product.

Currently, Immune Design Corp. is designing a vaccine that utilizes two of the intellectual properties that include the use of GLA, which is a novel toll-like intercepter 4 (TRL-4) that is currently undergoing clinical studies. These proprietary technologies are used to manipulate the immune system to help the body fight many chronic debilitating and even fatal diseases, such as cancer and other similar genetic mutative diseases.

Founded in 1998, ProQest Investments is an investment firm that is based in Princeton, New Jersey and has offices in San Diego, California and Montreal, Canada. ProQuest Investments primarily invests in companies in the healthcare industry and investments range from seed funding all the way to late stage funding. ProQuest currently has over $875 million under its management and in 2006, the firm has closed its fourth fund, which consists of $425 million. Some other companies in ProQuest’s portfolio include Achillian Pharmaceuticals, Agile Therapeutics, Mersana Therapeutics, Orthocon, ReVision Optics, and others.