Stealth BioTherapeutics Announces $100M Financings to Advance Clinical Development of Elamipretide and Pipeline

BOSTON, June 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stealth BioTherapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a first-in-class platform of novel therapeutic compounds for the treatment of mitochondrial dysfunction, today announced the closing of an aggregate $100 million of financing in two convertible note rounds led respectively by Nan Fung Technology's Pivotal Beta, with participating institutional investors including funds associated with Atlantis Investment Management, BVCF Management, CMBC Capital Holdings, Kingdon Capital, Ocean Equity Partners and Sagamore Investments, and existing investor Morningside Venture.

"We are gratified by the support from these leading healthcare and venture capital investors," said Reenie McCarthy, Chief Executive Officer of Stealth. "We particularly welcome our new investors' deep experience within the China healthcare market, which we view as an important frontier both for rare mitochondrial diseases under China's recent rare disease initiative, as well as for diseases of aging."

The proceeds from the financings will be used to initiate a phase 2b clinical trial of Stealth's lead compound, elamipretide, in intermediate dry age-related macular degeneration, for which positive interim results were recently reported and full results are expected later in 2018. Proceeds will also be used to prepare for upcoming regulatory and commercial milestones for elamipretide, currently in a phase 3 clinical trial in mitochondrial myopathy and a phase 2/3 clinical trial in Barth syndrome, for further development of the company's phase 2/3 clinical program in Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), and to advance IND-enabling studies for new pipeline compounds.

"Data generated to date with elamipretide across a range of age-related and rare disease indications support our belief that mitochondrial medicine offers great promise to deliver novel and commercially successful treatments to address the unmet medical needs of patients worldwide," said McCarthy.

Following this financing, Vincent Cheung, the managing partner of Pivotal, will join the Stealth board of directors. "Stealth's novel mitochondrial therapeutic platform has the potential to not only address the unmet medical needs of many patients with rare mitochondrial disease, but also to disrupt the current treatment paradigms for age-related indications," noted Mr. Cheung. "We believe that Stealth has not just the talent, but also the vision to achieve great things."

About Stealth
We are a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of therapeutics for diseases involving mitochondrial dysfunction. We believe there is a strong rationale for our lead product candidate, elamipretide, in indications in these diseases based on encouraging preclinical and early clinical data. We are investigating elamipretide in three primary mitochondrial diseases ? primary mitochondrial myopathy (PMM), Barth syndrome and Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), for which we have both Fast Track and Orphan Drug designation.  We are also investigating elamipretide in dry age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. We have a broad pipeline of novel mitochondria-targeting compounds we are evaluating for new indications, including neurodegenerative diseases. To learn more information about us and our pipeline, visit www.stealthbt.com.

Media Relations
dna Communications
Kate Contreras, 617-520-7088
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Investor Relations 
Stern IR
Rachel Frank, 212-362-1200
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SOURCE Stealth BioTherapeutics