Chapel Hill pharmaceutical company Cempra, which became a publicly traded company in February, reported a third quarter loss Thursday of $5 million compared to a loss of $8.9 million for the same three months a year earlier.
Formed in 2006, Cempra has no products on the market and is developing antibiotics to treat bacterial pneumonia and chronic infections in prosthetic joints. Both treatments are in various stages of testing on human patients.
The 19-employee company has about $75 million in cash on hand, enough to provide capital to keep operating into 2015. Cempra's strategy is to align itself with a larger drug company willing to finance the development of Cempra's products.
Cempra's stock closed at $6.29 a share Friday, up 28 cents.
John Murawski has been a full-time newspaper reporter since 1991, with stints at Legal Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy (both in Washington, DC), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Palm Beach Post (in South Florida) before arriving at the N&O in December 2004. At the N&O he covers energy (nuclear, coal, renewable, efficiency), hydralic fracturing (or "fracking"), public utilities (both electric and natural gas) and health care. His beat includes Progress Energy, PSNC Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, PowerSecure International, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Biogen Idec and others. You can reach him at 919-829-8932 or