SAN DIEGO, Nov. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- aTyr Pharma, Inc.
(Nasdaq: LIFE), a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery
and development of Physiocrine-based therapeutics to address
severe, rare diseases, today announced it has entered into a
$20 million credit facility with
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Solar Capital Ltd. (Nasdaq: SLRC).
aTyr intends to use the additional capital to pay off
existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes to further
aTyr's mission to bring meaningful therapies to patients based on
its understanding of Physiocrine biology.
"We believe that managing our cost of capital and creating
funding opportunities with premier partners enables us to create
more value for our stockholders and deliver on our promise to
patients," said John Mendlein, PhD,
Chief Executive Officer of aTyr Pharma. "SVB and Solar Capital are
top tier funding partners whose non-dilutive capital allows us to
better manage our cash runway as we near critical inflection points
for our lead candidate Resolaris™ for rare myopathies with an
immune component and prepare for the clinical development of
iMod.Fc for rare lung diseases."
"This funding agreement allows us to build upon our
long-standing relationship with and provide additional financial
support to aTyr Pharma's research and clinical development
initiatives," said Anthony Flores,
Director for Silicon Valley Bank. "We're happy to develop a
financing partnership with the company and look forward to their
development of high-value new Physiocrine-based biologics to treat
a wide-variety of diseases," said Anthony
Storino, Head of life science lending at Solar Capital.
aTyr Pharma will receive $10
million after execution of the loan agreement and, under the
terms of the agreement, two additional $5
million tranches will be available to aTyr Pharma, subject
to the achievement of certain specified milestones.
About aTyr Pharma
aTyr Pharma is engaged in the discovery and clinical development
of innovative medicines for patients suffering from severe rare
diseases using its knowledge of Physiocrine biology, a newly
discovered set of physiological modulators. The Company's lead
candidate, Resolaris™, is a potential first-in-class intravenous
protein therapeutic for the treatment of rare myopathies with an
immune component. Resolaris is currently in a Phase 1b/2 trial in
adult patients with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2B (LGMD2B or
dysferlinopathies) or FSHD; and a Phase 1b/2 trial in patients with
an early onset form of FSHD. In addition, Resolaris is currently
being evaluated in two Phase 1b/2 long-term safety extension
studies, the first in patients with adult FSHD and the second in
patients with adult FSHD, early onset FSHD, and LGMD2B. aTyr has
built an intellectual property estate, to protect its pipeline,
comprising over 80 issued or allowed patents and over 230 pending
patent applications that are owned or exclusively licensed by aTyr,
including over 300 potential Physiocrine-based protein
compositions. aTyr's key programs are currently focused on severe,
rare diseases characterized by immune dysregulation for which there
are currently limited or no treatment options. For more
information, please visit http://www.atyrpharma.com.
About Silicon Valley Bank
For more than 30 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped
innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward,
fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise
through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With
commercial, international, and private banking services, SVB helps
address the unique needs of innovators. Learn more at svb.com.
About Solar Capital
Solar Capital Partners, the investment advisor to Solar Capital
Ltd., Solar Senior Capital Ltd. and other affiliated funds,
primarily invests in leveraged, middle market companies in the form
of senior secured loans, unitranche loans, mezzanine loans, and
equity securities. As of September 30,
2016, Solar Capital Partners has invested approximately
$5.7 billion in more than 250
different portfolio companies since it was founded in 2006 and has
completed transactions with more than 145 different financial
sponsors and venture capital firms. Solar Capital's life science
lending segment provides financing solutions for bio-pharma,
medical device, healthcare IT and healthcare services companies,
both venture-backed private and public, and from pre-revenue
clinical to early commercial stage.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act.
Forward-looking statements are usually identified by the use of
words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects,"
"intends," "may," "plans," "projects," "seeks," "should," "will,"
and variations of such words or similar expressions. We intend
these forward-looking statements to be covered by such safe harbor
provisions for forward-looking statements and are making this
statement for purposes of complying with those safe harbor
provisions. These forward-looking statements, including statements
regarding the potential of Resolaris or iMod.Fc, the ability of the
Company to undertake certain development activities and accomplish
certain development goals, and the timing of initiation of
additional clinical trials reflect our current views about our
plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which
are based on the information currently available to us and on
assumptions we have made. Although we believe that our plans,
intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in
or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we
can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or
strategies will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual
results may differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of
risks and factors that are beyond our control including, without
limitation, risks associated with the discovery, development and
regulation of our Physiocrine-based product candidates, as well as
those set forth in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2015 and
in our subsequent SEC filings. Except as required by law, we assume
no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Contact:
Mark
Johnson
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
mjohnson@atyrpharma.com
858-223-1163
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SOURCE aTyr Pharma, Inc.