Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it has appointed a pharmaceutical executive Robert Ruffolo, Jr., Ph.D., D.Sc.(h), D.Eng.(h), F.C.P.P., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Ruffolo is the retired President of Research and Development at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer), and retired Corporate Senior Vice President of Wyeth. He has also held senior leadership roles at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) and Lilly Research Laboratories.

Dr. Ruffolo brings substantial drug discovery and development expertise to Aridis. At Wyeth, Dr. Ruffolo managed an R&D organization of 9,000 scientists with an annual budget in excess of $3 billion. Prior to Wyeth, Dr. Ruffolo spent 17 years at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals (now GlaxoSmithKline) where he was Senior Vice President and Director of Biological Sciences, Worldwide.