Idera Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Dr. Maxine Gowen to Its Board of Directors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and EXTON, Pa., Jan. 06, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. IDRA, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing toll-like receptor and RNA therapeutics for patients with cancer and rare diseases, today announced that Maxine Gowen, Ph.D., joined its Board of Directors, effective January 4, 2016.

Dr. Gowen is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of Trevena, Inc.  Prior to leading Trevena, Dr. Gowen held a variety of leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) over a period of fifteen years.  Dr. Gowen also held a tenured academic position in the School of Pharmacology, University of Bath, UK.  Dr. Gowen earned her Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, UK, her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Sheffield, UK and earned her MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Gowen also serves on the Board of Directors of Akebia Therapeutics and the state and national biotechnology industry associations, PA BIO and BIO.

"I would like to welcome Maxine to the Idera Board," stated Jim Geraghty, Chairman of Idera's Board of Directors. "The addition of Maxine significantly strengthens our Board's ability to guide Idera's strategic clinical development endeavors through her vast industry drug development and leadership experience."

"Maxine brings a wealth of industry knowledge and experience along with organization leadership, which further enhances our Board's ability to help guide Idera into the future as we continue our transition towards becoming a company focused on delivering approved therapies for patients suffering from certain cancers and rare diseases," stated Vincent Milano, Idera's Chief Executive Officer.  "I welcome Maxine to our board and we are looking forward to working closely with her to help mold Idera's bright future."

About Idera Pharmaceuticals
Idera Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel nucleic acid-based therapies for the treatment of certain cancers and rare diseases. Idera's proprietary technology involves using a TLR-targeting technology, to design synthetic oligonucleotide-based drug candidates to act by modulating the activity of specific TLRs. In addition to its TLR programs, Idera is developing a third generation antisense technology platform that it has created using its proprietary technology to inhibit the production of disease-associated proteins by targeting RNA. To learn more about Idera, visit www.iderapharma.com.