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 NEREUS PHARMACEUTICALS CLOSES FIRST TRANCHE OF $42.6 MILLION FINANCING: Company Appoints Three New Director SAN DIEGO, CA – January 4, 2005 – Nereus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pioneer in drug discovery and development from marine microbial sources, today announced a $42.6 million private placement of its Series D preferred stock to be received in two tranches. The first tranche that has closed amounted to $24.3 million and the second tranche will be $18.3 million upon the completion of certain ongoing development milestones. New investors HBM BioVentures (Cayman) Ltd. and HBM BioCapital L.P. led the round. Other new investors include Advent International, InterWest Partners, Genavent Partners (Sanofi-Aventis) and Red Abbey Venture Partners. Investors returning for this fourth financing round include Alta Partners, Forward Ventures, GIMV, Novartis Bioventure Fund, Pacific Venture Group, FirstBio and Lotus BioScience Ventures. In its first three rounds of venture financing, Nereus raised a total of $38 million. In conjunction with the financing, Nereus named three new directors to its board. Incoming director Gary Shearman, Ph.D., Chairman and Managing Director of HBM Advisors USA, LLC said, “Nereus is tapping a novel source of chemical diversity, and their discovery program is completely unique within the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. The Company has in place the development capabilities to pursue the clinical arena, and I look forward to working with the outstanding management and scientific teams as they investigate their portfolio full of rich opportunities.” Other new directors include Jason Fisherman, M.D., Managing Director of Advent, and Nina Kjellson, Principal at Interwest Partners. Existing board members include Frank AtLee, recently retired Chairman and CEO of Monsanto and former President of American Cyanamid; Jean Deleage, Senior Managing Partner of Alta Partners; Standish Fleming, Managing Member of Forward Ventures; and Martin Rosenberg, Ph.D., former SVP for Anti-Infectives and Host Defense R&D and Head of Biopharmaceutical R&D at SmithKline Beecham and SVP Anti-Infectives Center of Excellence in Drug Discovery for GlaxoSmithKline. The proceeds from the financing will be used to conduct human clinical trials for Nereus’ first two compounds and advance its portfolio of lead compounds. The Company’s first drug candidate, NPI-2358, is a potent and selective tumor vascular disrupting agent (VDA) for the treatment of solid tumors. The parent molecule of the compound was isolated from a marine fungus that provided the novel chemistry. Derived from a marine-obligate actinomycete, Nereus’ second compound, NPI-0052, is a highly potent second-generation proteasome inhibitor for the treatment of multiple myeloma and potentially solid tumors. Nereus expects to file Investigational New Drug applications with the Food and Drug Administration for both compounds in 2005. Nereus’ portfolio of additional compounds includes leads for oncology and infectious and inflammatory diseases. “Nereus’ productive microbial discovery program generated our differentiated product candidates that demonstrate efficacy and preliminary safety in preclinical studies. The backing of this group of highly respected investors will help advance our two lead candidates into human clinical trials within the next year,” said Kobi M. Sethna, President and CEO of Nereus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “We’re delighted to expand our team – of board directors as well as new employees – in order to drive our innovations further along the drug development path.” Nereus’ proprietary marine microbial drug discovery program has been industrialized to pharmaceutical standards to provide a continuous flow of new, high value medicinal entities. Expertise in marine microbiology is the foundation of the Company’s discovery program that surpasses the lead-generation capabilities of conventional microbial production technology employed by the pharmaceutical industry. About Nereus Pharmaceuticals
Nereus Pharmaceuticals is a registered trademark of Nereus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. All other product and company names may be registered trademark or trademarks of their respective owners.
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