National Institute of Allergy And Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Awards Contract Worth up to $36 Million to TetraPhase Pharmaceuticals for the Development of a Novel Tetraphase Antibiotic

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage life science company developing a portfolio of potent new antibiotics designed to be effective against dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria, including multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative pathogens, today announced that National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded a contract worth up to $36 million for the development of TP-271, Tetraphase’s novel antibiotic for respiratory disease caused by bacterial biothreats and antibiotic-resistant public health pathogens. Tetraphase will be working on this contract as a sub-contractor to Buffalo, NY-based CUBRC, Inc.

“We are pleased that NIAID has granted an award to support the development of TP-271, which will be the fourth compound to enter development from our novel chemistry platform,” said Guy Macdonald, president and chief executive officer of Tetraphase. “Tetraphase and CUBRC share NIAID’s commitment to addressing the global concerns of bioterrorism and antibiotic resistance. We are honored to be at the forefront of the development of potential solutions to these growing threats.”

The NIAID award covers development, manufacturing, and clinical activities to position TP-271 for further development against certain biothreat agents, including Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia, Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague, and Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax disease, and bacterial pathogens associated with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP), a significant public health threat and commercial market opportunity.

The contract includes a 25-month base period with committed funding of nearly $6 million and subsequent option periods that, if completed, would bring the total value of the award to almost $36 million.

About Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing its breakthrough synthetic chemistry technology platform to discover and develop next-generation tetracycline antibiotics that address unmet needs for serious infections such as drug resistant and gram-negative infections. The company has developed an emerging pipeline of potent novel antibiotics that provide a portfolio of intravenous and oral drug candidates with the potential to treat a wide range of infections, including broad-spectrum and selective-spectrum infections. To learn more about Tetraphase, please visit www.tphase.com.

About CUBRC

CUBRC is an independent not-for-profit scientific corporation that executes Research, Development, Testing and Systems Integration programs in Medical Sciences, Chemical and Biological Defense, Public Safety and Infrastructure, Information Fusion, Command and Control, and Hypersonics. To learn more about CUBRC, please visit www.cubrc.org.

About NIAID

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) conducts and supports research – at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), throughout the United States, and worldwide – to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov. The NIH – The U.S. Medical Research Agency – includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

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Sam Brown Inc.
Mike Beyer, 773-463-4211
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