Melinta Therapeutics Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals

Company Enters Growth Phase in Hospital Market with Support of Deerfield

Acquisition to Augment Company’s Core Antibiotic Portfolio

MORRISTOWN, N. J. , June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. (“Melinta”), a commercial-stage antibiotics company, announced that on June 4, 2020, it entered into a definitive merger agreement with Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Tetraphase”) pursuant to which Melinta would acquire Tetraphase, through a tender offer, for an aggregate of $39.0 million in cash, plus an additional $16.0 million in cash potentially payable under contingent value rights (“CVRs”) to be issued in the proposed acquisition. Closing of the transaction is subject to specified closing conditions and is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2020, at which time Tetraphase will become a privately held company of Melinta.

In April of this year, Melinta became privately owned by affiliates of the healthcare investment firm Deerfield Management Company, L.P. (“Deerfield”), resulting in a well-financed and strongly positioned hospital-focused company. In partnership with Deerfield, the Company announced plans to enhance its portfolio with the addition of commercial and late-stage pipeline candidates in support of its mission of serving the critical needs of patients in the hospital and hospital ecosystem.

Through this acquisition, Melinta will enhance its commercial portfolio with XERAVA^TM (eravacycline), a novel tetracycline approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Once the transaction closes, Melinta will have a portfolio of five complementary marketed antibiotics: VABOMERE^® (meropenem and vaborbactam), ORBACTIV^® (oritavancin), BAXDELA^® (delafloxacin), MINOCIN^® (minocycline) for Injection, and XERAVA^TM.

“This transaction represents the first step towards leveraging our infrastructure and expertise to grow Melinta’s hospital-focused business,” said Jennifer Sanfilippo, Interim Chief Executive Officer. “We are particularly excited by the addition of Xerava, a key addition to the hospital anti-infective armamentarium. The combined Melinta and Tetraphase infectious disease product offerings and synergies will significantly enhance our ability to serve the critical needs of patients by delivering a robust portfolio of treatment options addressing serious and potentially life-threatening bacterial infections, including those caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens.”

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms change with exposure to antimicrobial drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the biggest public health challenges of our time. According to CDC estimates, over 2.8 million people acquire drug resistant infections each year in the United States, 35,000 of whom die as a result. Additionally, many medical advances, such as joint replacements, organ transplants, and cancer therapy, are dependent on the ability to fight infections underscoring the importance of appropriate and effective antibiotic use in the hospital.

Paul Hastings served as legal counsel to Melinta with respect to the transaction.

About Melinta Therapeutics

Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. is dedicated to saving lives threatened by the global public health crisis of drug resistant bacterial infections through the development and commercialization of novel antibiotics that provide new therapeutic treatment options. Its four marketed products are Vabomere® (meropenem and vaborbactam), Orbactiv® (oritavancin), Minocin® (minocycline) for Injection, and Baxdela® (delafloxacin). This portfolio provides Melinta with the unique ability to provide providers and patients with a range of solutions that can meet the critical need for novel antibiotics treating serious bacterial infections.

For additional information, including product and respective important safety information, visit www.melinta.com.

For additional information about Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals and XERAVA^TM, visit www.tphase.com.

All product names and marks are property of their respective owners.

Contact Information:

Melinta TherapeuticsSusan Blum(312) 767-0296
info@melinta.com

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Michael N. Dudley, Pharm.D.

President and Chief Executive Officer
Qpex Biopharma, Inc.

Dr. Dudley has over 30 years of experience in antiinfective drug research, development, and commercialization. In 2018, he co-founded Qpex Biopharma which raised $33M in Series A financing and acquired the preclinical infectious disease programs from The Medicines Company. He has overseen the development and regulatory approval of 3 antibiotics, most recently a beta-lactamase inhibitor combination product from a new chemical class (vaborbactam) discovered in the company laboratories. The antibiotic product Vabomere™ advanced from discovery to FDA approval in 2017 in less than 8 years. He lead the negotiation for multiple contracts from public-private partnerships (e.g., BARDA of the US Government; Innovative Medicines Initiative for the EU) for a combined total of over $190 million funding to advance antimicrobial agents in development in the US and Europe. Prior to co-founding Qpex, he was Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Rempex Pharmaceuticals that was acquired by the Medicines Company (MDCO) in 2013, where he remained as the co-leader of the Infectious Disease Business Unit of MDCO. Prior to Rempex, he held VP/SVP/CSO positions of increasing responsibility at the biotech companies Mpex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Aptalis in 2011), Diversa Corporation, and Microcide Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his career in pharmaceutical industry, he held full-time academic appointments that included Professor of Pharmacy and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy (URI), and Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine at Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, RI. As an academic researcher, he conducted preclinical and clinical research in antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral agents, including pioneering work on PK-PD approaches for several classes of antiinfectives. Dr. Dudley has published over 130 scientific papers and book chapters describing the evaluation and clinical use of antiinfective agents and treatment of infectious diseases. He has served as an invited speaker at several FDA and EMA workshops, international meetings on infectious diseases, and advisor to several companies. He has served as an Editor for the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and numerous other editorial and advisory boards. He completed undergraduate work at Pepperdine University and his Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), completed at residency at UCSF, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Hartford Hospital.

Melinta Therapeutics Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals

René Russo, PharmD, BCPS

René Russo, PharmD, BCPS

Roger J. Pomerantz, M.D., F.A.C.P.

Christine Ann Miller

Graham G. Lumsden

Marco Taglietti, M.D.

Ankit Mahadevia

Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D.

Evan Loh, M.D.

Michael Dunne, M.D

Ciara Kennedy, Ph.D.

Ted Schroeder

Kevin Finney

Manos Perros, Ph.D.

David Roblin

Stephen Conafay

Christopher J. Burns, Ph.D.

Michael N. Dudley, Pharm.D.

Ramani Varanasi

Corey Fishman

Felix Faupel

Adrian Nivoliez