CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Jan. 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cempra, Inc. (Nasdaq:CEMP) today announced the appointment of David Moore as executive vice president and chief commercial officer (CCO) to manage the commercial development and launch of solithromycin and Taksta(TM).

"We know that developing and executing on the right commercial plan is key to marketing success even for highly differentiated products such as solithromycin and Taksta," said Prabhavathi Fernandes, president and chief executive officer of Cempra. "To that end, we plan to develop the commercial infrastructure to market these products in acute care settings, such as hospitals, and select specialty community settings. These markets typically require relatively small and targeted sales forces, which a company the size of Cempra can successfully manage, while likely partnering for the broader U.S. community market as well as for markets outside the U.S. in which partners have the necessary resources and are better positioned. David has the right mix of commercial expertise across several therapeutic areas, including antibiotics and the Orphan space, which will be put to good use as we develop the commercial plans for Cempra. We expect to rely on his extensive experience in launch planning, marketing in both the acute and primary care settings as well as his significant capabilities in pricing and reimbursement discussions with payors. He is a valuable and timely addition to Cempra."

Mr. Moore has spent over 15 years developing and managing pharmaceutical commercial programs, with the majority of those years spent with the Ortho-McNeil and Janssen Pharmaceutical divisions within Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Moore has held leadership roles in key sales and marketing functions, and was part of teams that developed and executed launch plans for several prescription pharmaceuticals for both primary and acute care settings. He was also responsible for developing payer value platforms for several therapeutic areas including antibiotics, pain and women's health, in which he successfully implemented pricing and reimbursement strategies with hospitals and managed care organizations. Following his tenure at Johnson & Johnson, he was chief business officer and vice president of Worldwide Commercial Operations of Tranzyme, Inc., where he was responsible for building the commercial organization as well as in- and out-licensing clinical-stage assets. Before joining Cempra, he was the chief business officer of Ocera Therapeutics where he was responsible for developing the commercial plans for an Orphan-designated advanced liver disease product for both the community and acute care markets. Mr. Moore received his B.Sc. in Biology from Towson University and an M.B.A. from Lehigh University, and a second graduate degree in Health Policy Excellence from Thomas Jefferson University.

"Joining Cempra is a great opportunity to create and execute commercial strategies for two differentiated antibiotic assets that are needed by both patients and the medical community," said Mr. Moore. "Solithromycin, with its multiple dosing formats in development, broad use potential beyond community-acquired bacterial pneumonia, such as pediatric infections, infections during pregnancy, gonorrhea and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, has the potential to be a major new antibiotic. Taksta may enable the U.S. to improve both treatment and quality of life for patients with prosthetic joints infections and to reflect the standard of practice in countries in which patients can avoid multiple orthopedic surgeries. I look forward to working with the Cempra team to make these two antibiotics commercial successes."

About Cempra, Inc.

Founded in 2006, Cempra, Inc. is a late clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing antibiotics to treat critical bacterial infections in patients in both acute and primary care settings. Cempra's two lead product candidates are currently in advanced clinical development. Solithromycin (CEM-101) is in two Phase 3 clinical trial for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) and is licensed to strategic commercial partner Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, for certain exclusive rights in Japan. TAKSTA™ (CEM-102) is Cempra's second product candidate currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial for prosthetic joint infections. TAKSTA was recently granted orphan drug designation for this indication. Both product candidates seek to address the need for new treatments targeting drug-resistant bacterial infections in the hospital and in the community. The company also intends to use its series of proprietary lead compounds from its novel macrolide library for uses such as the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, endocrine diseases and gastric motility disorders. Additional information about Cempra can be found at www.cempra.com.

Please Note: This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events. These statements are just predictions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: the results, timing, costs and regulatory review of our studies and clinical trials; the results of studies of our product candidates conducted by others; our ability to obtain FDA approval of our product candidates; our dependence on the success of solithromycin and Taksta; our need to obtain additional funding and our ability to obtain future funding on acceptable terms; our anticipated capital expenditures and our estimates regarding our capital requirements; the possible impairment of, or inability to obtain, intellectual property rights and the costs of obtaining such rights from third parties; and innovation by our competitors. The reader is referred to the documents that we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.