Anacor Achieves Milestone from GSK for Boron-Based Systemic Antibacterial Product...( PALO ALTO Calif. Jan. 12 /- Anaco...)

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Anacor Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has achieved its first candidate selection milestone payment of $3 million from its collaboration partner, GlaxoSmithKline. Anacor may receive future milestone payments and royalties should this product candidate progress to clinical development and commercial sales.

"We are pleased with the scientific progress we have made as a result of the alliance we have built between our team and GSK. The strength of this collaboration is reflected in our ability to move our first compound into preclinical development only 15 months since starting our work together," said Jacob J. Plattner, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Research at Anacor Pharmaceuticals. "We believe that our boron-based platform will continue to allow the collaboration team to successfully identify additional novel product candidates."

In October 2007, Anacor and GlaxoSmithKline announced a worldwide strategic alliance for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel medicines for viral and bacterial diseases. The collaboration provides GlaxoSmithKline access to Anacor's proprietary boron-based chemistry for use against selected antiviral and antibacterial targets.

In December 2008, Anacor closed a $50 million preferred stock financing with participation from GlaxoSmithKline, Schering Corporation and existing investors, including Rho Capital Partners, Venrock Associates, Care Capital and Aberdare Ventures. Proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop Anacor's product pipeline based on its boron chemistry platform. The combined ownership of GlaxoSmithKline and Schering Corporation is less than 20 percent of Anacor's outstanding shares.

About Anacor Pharmaceuticals

Anacor is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics derived from its boron chemistry platfor
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