The company said it will use the funds to advance its pipeline of novel antibiotics to treat serious bacterial infections, as well as expand its sales staff.
New Haven, Conn.-based Melinta Therapeutics snagged $123 million in a public offering of 22,000,000 shares of its common stock last week. The company said it will use the funds to advance its pipeline of novel antibiotics to treat serious bacterial infections, as well as expand its sales staff.
That sales staff expansion will be in support of Melinta’s recently launched oral formulations of Baxdela (delafloxacin). In January the company launched Baxdela for the treatment of adult patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) caused by designated susceptible bacteria. Approximately 14 million patients are treated for serious skin infections each year, either in the hospital or community settings, and these are often caused by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
In its announcement last week Melinta did not say how many sales reps the company will hire. The $123 million raised from the public offering was significantly more than what the company initially hoped to gain. In late May Melinta said it was hoping to secure about $75 million.
In addition to expanding its sales team, Melinta said the proceeds from the stock offering will also be used for general business purposes, support its pipeline, invest in its supply chain and fund future milestone obligations primarily related to receipt of approval of Vabomere (meropenem and vaborbactam) for European commercialization and payments to The Medicines Company as part of the infectious disease business acquisition. Melinta acquired The Medicines Company’s infectious disease unit last year for $270 million. The deal quadrupled Melinta’s antibiotics portfolio. It provided the company with established products Orbactiv and Minocin and Vabomere, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2017 for adults with complicated urinary tract infections including pyelonephritis caused by specific Enterobacteriaceae.
Additionally, the company said it will capitalize on potential business development opportunities.
Last year Melinta merged with North Carolina-based Cempra, Inc.
Shares of Melinta are currently trading at $7.92 as of 10:16 a.m. The stock is down slightly from its close of $8.05 on Friday. In May Melinta reported that it closed out the first quarter of 2018 with $14.8 million in revenue.
“The new Melinta is off to a strong start in 2018, as we completed our first quarter as a combined company following the close of our acquisition of The Medicines Company’s infectious disease business on January 5, 2018,” Dan Wechsler, president and chief executive officer of Melinta said in a statement. “During the quarter we launched Baxdela (delafloxacin) in the U.S. and continued our launch of Vabomere (meropenem and vaborbactam) in the U.S., and generated strong sales performance across all four of our brands, powered by our experienced antibiotics-focused salesforce. Our salesforce is now fully cross-trained with all reps selling all products beginning in May, significantly expanding our share of voice.
