Anacor Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has raised $50 million through a preferred stock financing with participation from GlaxoSmithKline, Schering Corporation and existing investors including Rho Capital Partners, Venrock Associates, Care Capital and Aberdare Ventures. Proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop Anacor's product pipeline based on its boron chemistry platform.

"We are pleased to complete this financing, which will allow us to advance our five clinical programs and to identify and progress new compounds derived from our boron chemistry platform," said David Perry, Chief Executive Officer at Anacor Pharmaceuticals.

The investments from GSK and Schering Corporation fulfill each company's investment obligations pursuant to their respective and ongoing collaborations with Anacor. At the conclusion of the financing, the combined ownership of GSK and Schering Corporation will be less than 20 percent of Anacor's outstanding shares.

About Anacor Pharmaceuticals

Anacor is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics derived from its boron chemistry platform. Anacor has focused initially on developing topical applications of its compounds to treat fungal, bacterial and inflammatory diseases. Anacor's most advanced product candidate is AN2690, a novel topical antifungal in development for the treatment of toenail onychomycosis, which is a fungal infection of the nail and nail bed. AN2690 is licensed to Schering under a worldwide development and commercialization agreement for all indications including the treatment of onychomycosis. Anacor also has a research and development collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline for the discovery, development, manufacture and worldwide commercialization of novel systemic therapeutics for viral and bacterial diseases utilizing Anacor's boron-based chemistry. For more information visit http://www.anacor.com/.