VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals Receives Award for up to $16 Million from DTRA to Develop a Novel, First-in-Class Antibiotic as Countermeasure against Potential Drug-Resistant Biodefense Category A/B Respiratory Pathogens

Malvern, PA, January 4, 2018 — VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, a private company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapies for highly drug resistant bacterial infections, announced that it has been awarded up to $16 million from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. The funding will support discovery and preclinical development of a novel, first-in-class antibiotic for biodefense applications. The project derives from the company’s proprietary platform of non-beta-lactam penicillin binding protein inhibitors (PBPis).

Bacteria express enzymes, known as beta-lactamases, as a very efficient way to inactivate beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin. Today, there are more than 2,000 identified beta-lactamase enzymes. “A non-beta-lactam class of antibiotics would circumvent more than 70 years of clinical bacterial resistance and represents a powerful countermeasure for first line treatment of infections caused by potential drug-resistant bacterial bioweapons, including Burkholderia spp., Yersinia pestis, and Francisella tularensis,” said Daniel Pevear, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Senior VP of Biology at VenatoRx.

“We are very pleased and grateful to DTRA for their support and validation of this ground-breaking program,” said Christopher Burns, Ph.D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of VenatoRx. “Bacterial drug resistance is a critical health issue and innovative new classes of antibiotics are urgently needed.” The award provides up to $5.1 million in the base period and up to $16 million in total.

About VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals is a private pharmaceutical company founded in 2010 dedicated to the discovery and development of novel agents to address the threat of antibiotic bacterial resistance. Its lead clinical program combines VNRX-5133, a novel, broad-spectrum ?-lactamase inhibitor, with a marketed ?-lactam antibiotic. For more information, please visit www.venatorx.com.

The project is supported by DTRA under Contract No. HDTRA117C0070.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” concerning the development of the company’s products, the potential benefits and attributes of such products, and the company’s expectations regarding its prospects. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual future events or results to differ materially from such statements. These statements are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results may vary. VenatoRx undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

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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.

VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals Receives Award for up to $16 Million from DTRA to Develop a Novel, First-in-Class Antibiotic as Countermeasure against Potential Drug-Resistant Biodefense Category A/B Respiratory Pathogens

VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals Receives Award for up to $16 Million from DTRA to Develop a Novel, First-in-Class Antibiotic as Countermeasure against Potential Drug-Resistant Biodefense Category A/B Respiratory Pathogens

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