Rib-X Closes First Tranche of $67.5 Million Preferred Stock Financing

[Updated 11:21 a.m.] Rib-X Pharmaceuticals of New Haven, CT, said today that it closed the first tranche of a $67.5 million Series 2 preferred stock financing, with a second tranche expected to close by year end. The company says it will use the money to fund a Phase 3 clinical trial of delafloxacin, an antibiotic for acute skin infections usually contracted in hospitals.

The round of financing was led by a new investor, Vatera Healthcare Partners, and also included existing investors Warburg Pincus, ABS Ventures and Vox Equity Partners.

Just a year ago Rib-X announced a planned IPO, but then postponed the offer indefinitely in May because of poor stock market conditions. [Sentence added with CEO’s comment about postponed IPO] CEO Mark Leuchtenberger said in response to my query that “we don’t have any immediate plans for an IPO, but the Board will undoubtedly consider all alternatives to raise future capital in order to advance the company’s drug candidates.” Rib-X has raised $208.4 million in venture funding since starting 12 years ago, and its fortunes were also boosted in July 2011 when it signed a deal with Sanofi (NYSE: [[ticker:SNY]]) to develop new classes of antibiotics that could bring it as much as $772 million.

Author: Catherine Arnst

Catherine Arnst is an award- winning writer and editor specializing in science and medicine. Catherine was Senior Writer for medicine at BusinessWeek for 13 years, where she wrote numerous cover stories and wrote extensively for the magazine’s website, including contributing to two blogs. She followed a broad range of issues affecting medicine and health and held primary responsibility for covering the battle in Washington over health care reform. Catherine has also written for the Boston Globe, U.S. News & World Report and The Daily Beast, and was Director of Content Development for the health practice at Edelman Public Relations for two years. Prior to joining BusinessWeek she was the London-based European Science Correspondent for Reuters News Service. She won the 2004 Business Journalist of the Year award from London’s World Leadership Forum, and in 2003 was the first recipient of the ACE Reporter Award from the European School of Oncology for her five-year body of work on cancer. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University.