Trevena Names Arthur Fratamico Chief Business Officer

Proven Industry Executive Brings Experience in Corporate and Business Development

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Trevena, Inc., the leader in G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biased ligand drug discovery, today announced the appointment of Arthur Fratamico, R.Ph., MBA, to the position of chief business officer. In this role, Mr. Fratamico is responsible for Trevena's business and strategic development.

"We are delighted to welcome Art to the team," said Maxine Gowen, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Trevena. "Art's rich sell-side experience will be invaluable to the strategic development of Trevena, as we move through Phase 2 clinical trials with TRV120027 for acute heart failure, and continue to advance our discovery portfolio of next-generation GPCR drugs."

Mr. Fratamico brings to Trevena nearly 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Prior to joining Trevena, he served as chief business officer at GeminX Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for overseeing corporate development activities, which culminated recently in the sale of the company to Cephalon for $525MM. Before GeminX, Mr Fratamico spent nine years at MGI PHARMA, Inc., in several key leadership roles, including vice president, business development and licensing. He previously worked for 10 years at Hoechst Marion Roussel in various assignments, including sales, product marketing and commercial development. Mr. Fratamico is also a registered pharmacist, and earned an MBA with a dual concentration in marketing and finance from Drexel University.

"I am excited to be joining such a high caliber team working at the forefront of biased GPCR ligands," said Mr. Fratamico. "Trevena's emerging portfolio of GPCR programs provides fantastic potential for corporate development and collaboration going forwards. This is a great opportunity."

About Biased Ligands and TRV120027

One third of modern medicinal products target GPCRs, and they remain the largest class of targets currently under clinical evaluation. However, traditional ligands either turn on or turn off all of the signaling pathways engaged by a particular receptor, which can result in efficacy limitations or undesirable adverse effects. In contrast, Trevena's novel drug discovery approach is focused on designing GPCR ligands that are "biased" toward activating one key receptor signaling pathway while blocking another. These biased ligands provide an enhanced level of drug specificity which allows enhanced efficacy or decreased side effects to be designed into the drug candidate.

TRV120027 is Trevena's most advanced program, and a first-in-class agent that, due to its unique spectrum of biological effects, could provide a major advance in the treatment of acute heart failure. It targets AT1R, which plays a central role in the pathophysiology of heart failure. Based on its profile in animals, TRV120027 is expected to rapidly provide symptomatic benefit while promoting an improvement in target organ function in patients with acute heart failure.

About Trevena

Trevena, Inc. is a leader in the discovery and development of GPCR biased ligand drugs. Trevena combines a powerful and efficient drug discovery platform with extensive development experience to yield a rich linked portfolio of novel medicines. Trevena's proprietary Advanced Biased Ligand Explorer, or ABLE(TM), platform includes customized assays, proprietary software, animal models and unique biological signaling information across multiple GPCRs that allow for the discovery, optimization and development of unique biased ligands into differentiated new medicines. The company's drug discovery technology is based on extensive research from the laboratories of leading scientists in the GPCR field - Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D. and Howard A. Rockman, M.D. of Duke University Medical Center. Trevena's pipeline is currently focused on programs for cardiovascular and CNS indications with significant unmet medical needs. Founded in 2008, Trevena is based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and is a privately held company backed by leading investors including Alta Partners, Healthcare Ventures, NEA, Polaris and Yasuda Enterprise Development Company. For more information about the company, please visit www.trevenainc.com.

    Source: Trevena, Inc.

Released April 11, 2011