SAN DIEGO, Nov. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- aTyr Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIFE), a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of Physiocrine-based therapeutics to address severe, rare diseases, today announced it has entered into a $20 million credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Solar Capital Ltd. (Nasdaq: SLRC).  aTyr intends to use the additional capital to pay off existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes to further aTyr's mission to bring meaningful therapies to patients based on its understanding of Physiocrine biology. 

"We believe that managing our cost of capital and creating funding opportunities with premier partners enables us to create more value for our stockholders and deliver on our promise to patients," said John Mendlein, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of aTyr Pharma. "SVB and Solar Capital are top tier funding partners whose non-dilutive capital allows us to better manage our cash runway as we near critical inflection points for our lead candidate Resolaris™ for rare myopathies with an immune component and prepare for the clinical development of iMod.Fc for rare lung diseases."

"This funding agreement allows us to build upon our long-standing relationship with and provide additional financial support to aTyr Pharma's research and clinical development initiatives," said Anthony Flores, Director for Silicon Valley Bank. "We're happy to develop a financing partnership with the company and look forward to their development of high-value new Physiocrine-based biologics to treat a wide-variety of diseases," said Anthony Storino, Head of life science lending at Solar Capital.

aTyr Pharma will receive $10 million after execution of the loan agreement and, under the terms of the agreement, two additional $5 million tranches will be available to aTyr Pharma, subject to the achievement of certain specified milestones.

About aTyr Pharma

aTyr Pharma is engaged in the discovery and clinical development of innovative medicines for patients suffering from severe rare diseases using its knowledge of Physiocrine biology, a newly discovered set of physiological modulators. The Company's lead candidate, Resolaris™, is a potential first-in-class intravenous protein therapeutic for the treatment of rare myopathies with an immune component. Resolaris is currently in a Phase 1b/2 trial in adult patients with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2B (LGMD2B or dysferlinopathies) or FSHD; and a Phase 1b/2 trial in patients with an early onset form of FSHD. In addition, Resolaris is currently being evaluated in two Phase 1b/2 long-term safety extension studies, the first in patients with adult FSHD and the second in patients with adult FSHD, early onset FSHD, and LGMD2B. aTyr has built an intellectual property estate, to protect its pipeline, comprising over 80 issued or allowed patents and over 230 pending patent applications that are owned or exclusively licensed by aTyr, including over 300 potential Physiocrine-based protein compositions. aTyr's key programs are currently focused on severe, rare diseases characterized by immune dysregulation for which there are currently limited or no treatment options. For more information, please visit http://www.atyrpharma.com.

About Silicon Valley Bank

For more than 30 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial, international, and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique needs of innovators. Learn more at svb.com.

About Solar Capital

Solar Capital Partners, the investment advisor to Solar Capital Ltd., Solar Senior Capital Ltd. and other affiliated funds, primarily invests in leveraged, middle market companies in the form of senior secured loans, unitranche loans, mezzanine loans, and equity securities. As of September 30, 2016, Solar Capital Partners has invested approximately $5.7 billion in more than 250 different portfolio companies since it was founded in 2006 and has completed transactions with more than 145 different financial sponsors and venture capital firms. Solar Capital's life science lending segment provides financing solutions for bio-pharma, medical device, healthcare IT and healthcare services companies, both venture-backed private and public, and from pre-revenue clinical to early commercial stage.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act.  Forward-looking statements are usually identified by the use of words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "plans," "projects," "seeks," "should," "will," and variations of such words or similar expressions. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by such safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements and are making this statement for purposes of complying with those safe harbor provisions. These forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the potential of Resolaris or iMod.Fc, the ability of the Company to undertake certain development activities and accomplish certain development goals, and the timing of initiation of additional clinical trials reflect our current views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to us and on assumptions we have made. Although we believe that our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control including, without limitation, risks associated with the discovery, development and regulation of our Physiocrine-based product candidates, as well as those set forth in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and in our subsequent SEC filings. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:
Mark Johnson
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
mjohnson@atyrpharma.com 
858-223-1163

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SOURCE aTyr Pharma, Inc.