August 9, 2010 (FinancialWire) (Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=ftrdnwswnd for all of today’s featured news.) — Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) said that it has agreed to sell a total of 8,955,224 shares of its common stock, at a price of $6.70 per share, in a registered direct public offering to entities affiliated with Deerfield Management, a healthcare investment organization.

The company said it expects to receive gross proceeds, before expenses, of approximately $60 million. The closing of the offering is scheduled to take place on or before August 10.

Arena said it will use $30 million of the proceeds from this offering to prepay the portion of the loan principal that otherwise would have been required to be repaid in July 2012 under an existing facility agreement between Arena and Deerfield.

Arena and Deerfield also amended the facility agreement to defer the $20 million principal repayment required to be made in July 2011 until June 17, 2013, subject to Arena receiving US Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approval by the July 2011 repayment date to market and sell lorcaserin, which is Arena's lead drug candidate for weight management.

According to Arena, the FDA has assigned a PDUFA date of October 22 for review of the lorcaserin New Drug Application.

California-based Arena is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral drugs that target G protein-coupled receptors in the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular, central nervous system, inflammatory and metabolic diseases.

Arena’s most advanced drug candidate, lorcaserin, is intended for weight management, including weight loss and maintenance of weight loss, and has completed a Phase 3 clinical trial program. Arena submitted a New Drug Application for lorcaserin to the FDA in December 2009.

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