With its lead an­tibi­ot­ic un­der a cloud, Cem­pra asks Mor­gan Stan­ley for help with a strate­gic re­view

With its stock price beat­en down by suc­ces­sive set­backs for its lead an­tibi­ot­ic, Cem­pra has brought in Mor­gan Stan­ley to help ad­vise its ex­ecs as they re­view strate­gic op­tions for a com­pa­ny with more cash than con­fi­dence in its fu­ture.

At the end of last year, Chapel Hill, NC-based Cem­pra had $231 mil­lion in cash, which is sig­nif­i­cant­ly more than its cur­rent mar­ket cap. Two days be­fore the end of the year the biotech was al­so hand­ed a re­jec­tion for its lead an­tibi­ot­ic solithromycin af­ter reg­u­la­tors con­clud­ed — to no one’s sur­prise — that the com­pa­ny would need to run a safe­ty study be­fore they could re­con­sid­er of­fer­ing mar­ket­ing ap­proval to an an­tibi­ot­ic tied to clear signs of liv­er tox­i­c­i­ty.

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