San Diego, CA – August 9, 2005 - Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of antibacterials for the treatment of life-threatening infections, announced today a $32 million private placement of its Series B preferred stock. New investors SV Life Sciences (lead investor), HBM BioVentures (Cayman) Ltd/HBM BioCapital LPs (co-lead), Aberdare Ventures, and Adams Street Partners join previous investors Western States Investment Group and Charitable Leadership Foundation in this round of financing. In addition to this Series B financing, the Company has raised a total of $3.7M from the sale of common and Series A preferred stock.
"We are very pleased to have raised significant capital from a strong syndicate of investors," states Bill Gerhart, President and CEO. "This capital will enable us to advance our first two candidates through preclinical and early clinical development, as well as attract and support future R&D partnerships."
Mpex is discovering and developing small molecule inhibitors of bacterial resistance that can be combined with antibiotics to overcome resistance and improve clinical outcomes for the most severe of infections. The Company's most advanced candidate is an aerosol antibacterial being developed to treat patients with cystic fibrosis and those with other serious respiratory infections. Beyond this first candidate, Mpex is discovering and developing a pipeline of other combination antibacterials for the treatment of resistant bacterial infections in the hospital and community settings.
"By combining inhibitors of resistance with proven antibiotics," states Mike Ross, General Partner, SV Life Sciences, "we believe Mpex is pursuing a very attractive strategy for developing new anti-bacterial agents with significant market potential."
Concurrent with this financing, the Company has added to its current board of directors Mike Ross, Ph.D., Justin Duckworth, Investment Advisor at HBM Partners AG, and Dan Kisner, M.D., General Partner at Aberdare Ventures, joining current members Scott Pancoast, CEO Lpath Therapeutics; Ken Kelly, consultant; Bill Gerhart, and Keith Bostian, Mpex CSO.
About Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Inc:
Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of new antibacterial drugs to meet the growing clinical need created by multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens. Resistance to multiple antibiotics has resulted in unacceptably high morbidity and mortality rates that costs the U.S. healthcare system $5 billion annually and kills more than 90,000 Americans each year. Despite the efforts of drug development companies, new antibiotics have failed to significantly improve these worsening statistics. To address this medical need, Mpex is developing inhibitors of bacterial resistance that can be combined with proven antibiotics to significantly increase the potency of these antibiotics against resistant bacteria. For more information: www.mpexpharma.com
Mpex Pharmaceuticals is a registered trademark of Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. All other product and company names may be registered trademark or trademarks of their respective owners.
