Chapel Hill drug developer Cempra Pharmaceuticals announced a licensing agreement Tuesday worth up to $70 million and structured to help the underfunded company finance development of its most promising antibiotic treatment.

Under the deal, Toyama Chemical Co. will have exclusive rights in Japan to develop and commercialize solithromycin, Cempra's lead experimental drug. In exchange, Cempra will receive an upfront payment of $10 million and up to $60 million in milestone payments.

Cempra said Japan is the world's second-largest antibiotic market and Toyama "will commit significant resources" to developing solithromycin, a treatment for pneumonia and respiratory tract infections.

Chapel Hill drug-development company Cempra reported a net loss of $6.6 million, or 26 cents per share, in the fourth quarter.

That compared to a net loss of $3.8 million, or $7.13 per share, during the same period in 2011.

The company spent $4.4 million on research and development in the quarter, a 203 percent increase. The increased expenses were related to several clinical trial programs. Administration costs also increased 73 percent in the quarter, driven mostly by added employee and legal expenses.

Cempra doesn't have any drugs on the market.

It is developing a pneumonia medicine, solithromycin, and Taksta, a treatment for prosthetic-joint infections.

Both the antibiotics are aimed at infections that have developed resistance to antibiotics, a widespread and growing problem.

Cempra's timetable for both its leading drug candidates calls for filing for marketing approval with the Food and Drug Administration in 2015.

For the year, the company reported a net loss of $24.5 million, or $1.23 per share, compared to a net loss of $25 million, or $47.53 per share, in 2011.

Cempra went public in February 2011, netting $54.7 million after expenses. The company had $70.1 million in cash at the end of the year.

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.

Cempra, the Chapel Hill pharmaceutical company that raised $54.7 million in a public offering in February, has raised an additional $25 million through a private sale of stock.

The company sold about 3.8 million shares at a purchase price of $6.50.

Cempra said proceeds from the sale would be used to for general corporate purposes and for the funding of clinical trials.

Cempra is developing a treatment of gonorrhea and two experimental drugs aimed at treating pneumonia and chronic infections in prosthetic joints.

The company sold 8.4 million shares at $6 per share when it went public. The stock closed Friday at $6.65.

The markets have been closed on Monday and Tuesday because of the superstorm Sandy.

Durham drug-development company Argos Therapeutics is expected to make an initial public offering of stock this week.

The company has said in regulatory filings that it hopes to raise as much as $78.8 million.

Argos is in need of cash. Its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reports that it had $2 million in cash as of Dec. 31, leaving "substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern" without an infusion of cash.

A successful IPO would provide the company with sufficient funds to continue its drug-development efforts through the second half of 2014, the company reported.

Pharmaceutical company Cempra on Friday became the first Triangle company to complete an initial public offering of stock in 10 months, raising nearly $48 million.

That was considerably lower than the nearly $90 million the Chapel Hill company had said it hoped to raise in earlier regulator filings. Cempra sold 8.4 million shares at $6 per share, well below the $11 to $13 price range the company expected.

Underwriters of the offering also have the option an additional 1.2 million shares.
In its first day of trading on the NASDAQ, Cempra shares closed up 6 cents at $6.06. The company’s ticker symbol is CEMP.

Cempra, which has 15 employees, is developing treatments for drug-resistant skin infections and pneumonia. The company has two antibiotics in clinical trials.

Cempra Pharmaceuticals expects the offering price for its planned IPO to be between $11 and $13, the Chapel Hill company reported in a regulatory filing last week.

The company, which filed to go public in October, had earlier said it hoped to raise nearly $90 million through the offering.

Cempra is developing treatments for drug-resistant skin infections and pneumonia. The company has two antibiotics in clinical trials.

One targets patients with pneumonia. The other is being tested as a treatment for skin infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.