Peninsula Pharmaceuticals

About Peninsula Pharmaceuticals

Peninsula Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was a biopharmaceutical firm established in February 2001, focusing on the development and commercialization of antibiotics to combat life-threatening infections, particularly those acquired in hospital settings. The company was co-founded by Paul Truex, who initially served as CEO before transitioning to the role of Executive Vice President of Business Development. Peninsula's business model centered on in-licensing promising antibiotic candidates and advancing them through the clinical development process. The company's strategy targeted the intravenous and inhaled antibiotic market, which are crucial for treating severe infections.

The firm's lead product candidate was doripenem, a broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotic belonging to the carbapenem class. Peninsula in-licensed the development and commercialization rights for doripenem in North America, South America, and Europe from the Japanese company Shionogi & Co., Ltd. in 2003. Doripenem was designed to treat complicated infections by disrupting the cell-wall synthesis of bacteria and received fast-track designation from the FDA for treating nosocomial pneumonia, including ventilator-associated pneumonia. By the time of its acquisition, Peninsula had initiated six Phase 3 clinical trials for doripenem for various indications, including complicated urinary tract and intra-abdominal infections. The company's pipeline also included PPI-0903, another broad-spectrum antibiotic in-licensed from Takeda Chemical Industries, which was targeted for severe infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA.

After raising over $80 million in venture capital, including a $58 million Series C round in late 2003, Peninsula filed for an initial public offering. However, in June 2005, the company was acquired by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, in a cash-for-stock deal valued at approximately $245 million. As part of the acquisition agreement, the rights to the pipeline drug PPI-0903 were spun out into a new, separate company called Cerexa Inc. Following the acquisition, Johnson & Johnson continued the development of doripenem, which ultimately received FDA approval in 2007.