Aduro Biotech Completes Series A-1 Financing

Company Will Use Funds to Advance Vaccine Platform for Infectious Disease and
Cancer Immunotherapy
BERKELEY, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Aduro BioTech, a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development
of therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines based on proprietary recombinant
strains of the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, today announced completion of
its Series A-1 financing. Individual investors, including senior management of
the company, provided a $2 million equity round. Aduro has also secured an
additional $2.7 million in funding through grants and contracts from the
Department of Defense for development of a therapeutic vaccine for Hepatitis C,
and from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (via the
University of New Mexico) for the development of a prophylactic vaccine against
the bio-terror agent that causes tularemia.

Aduro will use the new capital to complete the acquisition of key intellectual
property from Cerus Corporation and the former Anza Therapeutics, and to support
late stage pre-clinical development prior to initiating clinical trials. Aduro
anticipates filing an investigational new drug (IND) application with the FDA in
fourth quarter of 2010 to begin Phase 1 clinical trials in patients chronically
infected with the Hepatitis C virus. Anza Therapeutics previously conducted
three FDA approved Phase 1 clinical trials, including two cancer trials, and
Aduro will expand upon these programs in its future clinical studies.

"The current round of funding will allow us to advance our therapeutic vaccines
program, which is currently focused on the treatment of Hepatitis C infection
and prostate cancer," said Stephen T. Isaacs, Aduro`s President and Chief
Executive Officer. "We believe these two important diseases are appropriate for
the initial application of the Listeria technology, and we plan to leverage this
versatile platform for many other applications.

Mr. Isaacs added, "We`re very pleased to have raised the necessary capital to
continue this promising program started by Cerus and Anza, especially given the
current economic environment. The willingness of our investors to support our
efforts is a testament to the scientific team and the potential of the Listeria
platform."

Dr. Mike Powell, general partner of Sofinnova Ventures and a former board member
and Chairman of Anza Therapeutics added, "I`m very pleased that Aduro has
acquired the Listeria vaccine technology, and I believe the company is in a
strong position to move it forward. The Listeria approach is potentially very
powerful, and may indeed have blockbuster potential."

Aduro has developed a proprietary approach to therapeutic vaccines that the
company believes will enable it to quickly and efficiently produce a portfolio
of promising vaccines for both cancer and infectious diseases. Aduro anticipates
entering human clinical trials within twelve months and providing important
human proof-of-concept results by 2011.

Key to Aduro`s approach is the intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes,
which Aduro scientists have genetically engineered to enhance both safety and
efficacy. Listeria is an ideal delivery platform to enable the human immune
system to recognize a specific antigen and rally an attack against it. The
Listeria approach overcomes many of the current limitations of other therapeutic
vaccine platforms by potentially providing superior potency, the ability for
repeat administration, and low manufacturing costs. Aduro has demonstrated
strong immune responses against multiple targets following a series of
vaccinations in animal models, including demonstrated efficacy for both
prevention and treatment in multiple tumor models. A further advantage is the
ability to use the same proprietary Listeria strain to construct multiple
vaccines, which can potentially simplify development and regulatory review,
thereby accelerating time to product approval.

"There are obvious advantages to Aduro`s technology, in that Listeria vaccines
stimulate both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system, which make
them extremely potent agents. And significantly, the Listeria vaccines have
demonstrated the key ability to break tolerance in rigorous pre-clinical disease
models" said Drew Pardoll, MD, PhD, the co-director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer
Center and Seraph Professor of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University. Dr.
Pardoll, who will chair Aduro`s Scientific Advisory Board and who has been
associated with the Listeria program since 2002, added, "I`m very pleased that
Aduro has acquired the Listeria technology and I look forward to working with
the Aduro scientific team to further develop this important vaccine platform."
Joining Dr. Pardoll on the Scientific Advisory Board are Dr. Daniel Portnoy, who
is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of
California at Berkeley, and Dr. Thomas Dubensky, Chief Scientific Officer of
Immune Design Corporation, both of whom have worked with the Aduro team for
several years in developing the Listeria vaccine platforms and advancing product
candidates to human clinical trials.

About Aduro Biotech

Aduro is a privately held biotechnology company committed to developing safer
and more effective options for patients in disease areas with substantial unmet
medical needs. Aduro`s current focus is to develop novel therapeutic and
prophylactic vaccine technologies based on the intracellular bacterium Listeria
monocytogenes, which are being designed to harness the power of the immune
system against cancer and infectious disease. Aduro`s active development
programs include therapeutic vaccines against Hepatitis C and prostate cancer. A
recent television story concerning Aduro`s vaccine development program was
presented by KTVU and may be viewed at
http://www.ktvu.com/news/21567552/detail.html.

Aduro BioTech
Nancy Kaplan, 510-848-4400 ext. 101

Copyright Business Wire 2009