Ocera Therapeutics Reveals Closure Of Quebec Research Site - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Ocera Therapeutics Inc. (OCRX), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on acute and chronic orphan liver diseases, Tuesday disclosed a restructuring plan for the closure of operations in its Sherbrooke, Quebec facility effective November 11.

The Sherbrooke facility housed 17 employees and research operations leveraging the company's proprietary chemistry technology platform, MATCH (Macrocyclic Template Chemistry) - used to develop novel pre-clinical and clinical stage product candidates.

The goal of the restructuring plan is to enable Ocera to focus resources on advancing its lead product candidate, OCR-002 (ornithine phenylacetate), in trials for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy associated with liver disease. Ocera expects to commence Phase 2b clinical trials of OCR-002 during the fourth quarter.

Ocera is the combined company following the merger of Tranzyme Inc. and Ocera Therapeutics Inc., a private company, in July 15. The Sherbrooke facility was part of the original Tranzyme operations prior to the merger.