Paratek Pharmaceuticals Completes $40 Million Private Placement to Finance Clinical Programs Including Oral Antibiotic to Combat MRSA and Other Infections

    BOSTON, April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
 announced today that it has closed the second and final tranche of a $40
 million private financing. As previously announced, Aisling Capital led the
 financing, with additional participation by new investors, the D.E. Shaw
 group and Boston Life Science Venture Corporation, and prior investors,
 Nomura Phase4 Ventures, Novartis BioVentures, BioFund Ventures, HBM
 BioVentures, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, BioVeda Fund and Hercules
 Technology Growth Capital. Pacific Growth Equities served as placement
 agent for the financing.
 
     Funding from the financing will allow for the initiation of Phase 3
 studies of Paratek's most advanced broad-spectrum antibiotic, PTK 0796,
 which is being developed to treat serious, often life-threatening
 infections that require a hospital visit such as complicated skin and skin
 structure infections (cSSSI) and moderate to severe community-acquired
 pneumonias (CAP), including those caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria.
 The Company recently completed a Phase 2 clinical study of oral and
 intravenous (IV) forms of PTK 0796 in comparison to Zyvox(R) in patients
 with cSSSI.
 
     The financing will also help Paratek continue developing additional
 products in its pipeline. Thomas J. Bigger, President and CEO of Paratek
 Pharmaceuticals, stated, "The second tranche of the financing was triggered
 by the successful completion and positive results of the Phase 2 clinical
 trials of oral and IV PTK 0796. The financing will be critical in advancing
 this program into Phase 3, which we expect to initiate later this year. We
 hope to announce the Phase 2 data at the appropriate peer-reviewed forum
 later this year."
 
     About Paratek Pharmaceuticals
 
     Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is engaged in the discovery and
 commercialization of new therapeutics that treat serious and
 life-threatening diseases, with a particular focus on the growing worldwide
 problem of antibiotic resistance. Paratek is advancing novel compounds that
 can circumvent or block bacterial resistance. Paratek's lead compound, PTK
 0796, is a broad spectrum antibiotic derived from the tetracycline class
 with oral and IV formulations that is being developed for the treatment of
 the most common serious hospital bacterial infections, including those
 caused by resistant strains such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant
 Staphylococcus aureus) and MDRSP (multi-drug resistant Streptococcus
 pneumoniae). Oral and IV formulations of PTK 0796 were compared to Zyvox(R)
 in a recently completed Phase 2 clinical study in complicated skin and skin
 structure infections (cSSSI). In addition to PTK 0796, Paratek is also
 developing other broad- and narrow-spectrum tetracycline antibiotics to
 treat hospital and community infections based on its novel tetracycline
 chemistry expertise.
 
     Outside of its tetracycline program, Paratek has also identified small
 molecules that inhibit bacteria-specific proteins called Multiple
 Adaptational Response (MAR) proteins that control bacterial infectivity and
 resistance development. MAR inhibitors would be used to prevent
 life-threatening and debilitating infections such as ventilator-associated
 pneumonia (VAP) and hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) and to enhance the
 activity of antibiotics against resistant bacteria, and since they do not
 directly attack bacteria, they would be less likely to engender resistance
 development.
 
     Based upon a growing body of clinical research and as part of its
 effort to exploit its novel tetracycline derivatives and their unique
 mechanism of action in selected inflammatory and neurodegenerative
 conditions, Paratek has an active chemical synthesis effort to produce
 novel and diverse small molecules, with the goal of developing
 non-antibacterial compounds with improved activity in serious inflammatory
 and neurodegenerative diseases. Paratek's most advanced projects in this
 area are its multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and ischemic stroke
 programs.
 
     Paratek has active collaborations with Merck & Co., MerckSerono,
 Warner-Chilcott and FSMA to develop orally available small molecule drugs
 for bacterial infections, multiple sclerosis, acne & rosacea, and spinal
 muscular atrophy (SMA), respectively. Paratek is privately held and
 headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. For more information about
 Paratek and its research and development initiatives, visit Paratek's
 website at http://www.paratekpharm.com/.
 
 
 

SOURCE Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.