ANACOR ACHIEVES MILESTONE FROM GSK FOR BORON-BASED SYSTEMIC ANTIBACTERIAL PRODUCT CANDIDATE
Palo Alto, Calif. - January 12, 2009 - Anacor Pharmaceuticals today announced that it
has achieved its first candidate selection milestone payment of $3 million from its
collaboration partner, GlaxoSmithKline. Anacor may receive future milestone payments
and royalties should this product candidate progress to clinical development and
commercial sales.
"We are pleased with the scientific progress we have made as a result of the alliance we
have built between our team and GSK. The strength of this collaboration is reflected in
our ability to move our first compound into preclinical development only 15 months
since starting our work together," said Jacob J. Plattner, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of
Research at Anacor Pharmaceuticals. "We believe that our boron-based platform will
continue to allow the collaboration team to successfully identify additional novel product
candidates."
In October 2007, Anacor and GlaxoSmithKline announced a worldwide strategic alliance
for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel medicines for viral and
bacterial diseases. The collaboration provides GlaxoSmithKline access to Anacor's
proprietary boron-based chemistry for use against selected antiviral and antibacterial
targets.
In December 2008, Anacor closed a $50 million preferred stock financing with
participation from GlaxoSmithKline, Schering Corporation and existing investors,
including Rho Capital Partners, Venrock Associates, Care Capital and Aberdare
Ventures. Proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop Anacor's product
pipeline based on its boron chemistry platform. The combined ownership of
GlaxoSmithKline and Schering Corporation is less than 20 percent of Anacor's
outstanding shares.
About Anacor Pharmaceuticals
Anacor is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics
derived from its boron chemistry platform. Anacor has focused initially on developing
topical applications of its compounds to treat fungal, bacterial and inflammatory diseases.
In addition, the Company is developing systemic antiviral and antibacterial therapeutics
under a research and development agreement with GlaxoSmithKline. Anacor's most
advanced product candidate is AN2690, a novel topical antifungal in development for the
treatment of toenail onychomycosis, which is a fungal infection of the nail and nail bed.
AN2690 is licensed to Schering-Plough Corporation under a worldwide development and
commercialization agreement for all indications including the treatment of
onychomycosis. For more information visit www.anacor.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding
our ability to identify and efficiently develop product candidates using boron chemistry
and our ability to secure milestone or royalty payments from GlaxoSmithKline for these
compounds. These statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual levels of activity,
performance or achievement to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements. Some factors that may affect these forward-looking
statements include, but are not limited to, undesirable effects from our product
candidates, clinical failure at later stages of development and unexpected termination of
existing partnerships. These statements reflect the views of Anacor as of the date of this
press release with respect to future events and, except as required by law, it undertakes no
obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this press release.
Contact:
Nicole Foderaro
WeissComm Partners
nfoderaro@wcpglobal.com
415-946-1058
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