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Closes $12.25 Million in Series B Financing to Advance ProNutreinâ„¢ Product Candidates

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 13, 2014 /PRÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵAPPwire/ -- Pronutria, the only company with a discovery engine and pipeline of pharmaconutrient products, announced today the beginning of two clinical trials evaluating its lead ProNutreinâ„¢ product candidates. The company is utilizing its ProNutreinâ„¢ discovery platform to identify and develop protein pharmaconutrients, protein nutrients identified in food with beneficial impact in many areas of human health, including muscle, metabolic and gastrointestinal health. Pronutria also announced the closing of a $12.25 million financing that will fund the advancement of the ProNutreinâ„¢ pipeline as well as the development of additional candidates as medical foods and supplements, and in a separate business unit, as therapeutics.

Pronutria's two clinical studies are evaluating its lead ProNutreinâ„¢ candidates for beneficial effects on muscle and metabolism in age appropriate healthy volunteers. In relevant preclinical models of muscle growth and thermogenesis, these candidates have demonstrated substantial efficacy. Pronutria is evaluating these lead programs for development as nutritional supplements and medical foods, and is building off published, positive clinical amino acid data. The company expects to complete these trials by the end of the second quarter of 2014.

"These trials demonstrate our unique ability to advance multiple lead ProNutreinâ„¢ candidates from product conception to human data in multiple indications in less than a year in a highly capital efficient manner," said Robert Connelly, Chief Executive Officer of Pronutria. "Pronutria's world-leading understanding of amino acid pharmacology has positioned us to rapidly build a pipeline of orally administered protein products that can have life changing benefits for millions."

Pronutria was founded in 2011 by Flagship VentureLabsâ„¢, the innovation foundry of Flagship Ventures. The $12.25 million Series B financing was led by Flagship and includes private investors. Pronutria expects to fund its activities through a combination of partnerships and investment. The company has raised $23 million to date.

"Pronutria has very effectively converted its unique vision into reality with multiple clinical candidates," said Dr. Noubar Afeyan, Chairman of Pronutria and Managing Partner and CEO of Flagship Ventures. "The company has hit an important inflection point with a validated platform where it will rapidly advance its candidates in important medical areas initially as medical foods and dietary supplements and eventually as therapeutics."

Pronutria is unlocking the vast untapped potential of the individual proteins in the human diet to impact human health. The company's ProNutreinâ„¢ platform delivers single proteins orally that, through the normal digestive process, release specific combinations of amino acids. Over 40 years of clinical trial work has validated the impact of specific amino acids on a range of important conditions including muscle loss, metabolic disease, and rare genetic diseases. Delivering these validated amino acid combinations in protein form couples the clinical benefit with physiochemical and pharmacokinetic control.

About Pronutria

Pronutria is transforming medicine with ProNutreinâ„¢ products, protein nutrients identified in the human diet, for the dietary management of disease, including diabetes, obesity, muscle loss, and diseases with impaired nutrient absorption. ProNutreinâ„¢ products are orally consumed pure protein products that trigger specific health benefits through precise and reproducible delivery of amino acids. Pronutria is the only company with access to a library containing over a billion protein nutrients and the tools to select them for specific indications and population segments. Pronutria offers an unprecedented platform with the ability to develop many first and best in class ProNutreinâ„¢ products. For more information, please visit . PRONUTRIA AND PRONUTREIN are trademarks of Pronutria, Inc.

About Flagship VentureLabs

Flagship VentureLabsâ„¢ is the innovation foundry of Flagship Ventures. VentureLabs has been creating innovative, game changing companies since its founding in 2000. It is the first institution dedicated to entrepreneurial innovation and parallel entrepreneuring, where the acts of technology invention and entrepreneuring are performed in concert by a team of world-class innovators and professional entrepreneurs. The VentureLabs team innovates, invents, iterates, founds and builds startups using a unique, systematic approach that results in the creation of best-in-class new ventures. More than 25 life science and technology startups have been created within VentureLabs, including recently launched Joule Unlimited, Midori Renewables, Moderna Therapeutics, and Seres Health. For more information, please visit www.flagshipventures.com/venturelabs.

About Flagship Ventures

Realizing entrepreneurial innovation is the mission of Flagship Ventures. The firm operates through two synergistic units: VentureLabsâ„¢ which invents and launches transformative companies, and Venture Capital, which finances and develops innovative, early-stage companies. Founded in 2000, and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flagship Ventures manages over $900 million in capital. The Flagship team is active in three principal business sectors: therapeutics, health technologies and sustainability/clean technology. Flagship's portfolio ventures include: Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton Dickinson), Adnexus (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), Acceleron (NASDAQ: XLRN), Agios (NASDAQ: AGIO), BIND Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BIND), Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly), Morphotek (acquired by Eisai), Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT) and Tetraphase (NASDAQ: TTPH). Additional notable portfolio companies include: Affinnova, Joule Unlimited, and Moderna Therapeutics. For more information, please visit www.flagshipventures.com.

Contact:
For Flagship Ventures: Rachel Brenner
Ruder Finn
212.715.1623
flagship@ruderfinn.com

For Pronutria: Robert Connelly
617.868.0949