Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) got a HUGE vote of confidence this morning. Deerfield Management agreed to provide the obesity drug developer with a $100M credit facility to advance lorcaserin and keep the company afloat.

ARNA gets the $100M within fifteen business days of signing and pays Deerfield a transaction fee of 2.25% at closing. The outstanding principal accrues interest until maturity in June 2013 at a rate of 7.75% per annum, payable quarterly, unless repaid earlier.

The news comes weeks after ARNA CEO Jack Lief presented positive data at ADA and got the share price some momentum again. Lief also mentioned that potential partners are interested in scooping up lorcaserin, but were waiting for the BLOSSOM data in September.

Here was Lief’s thoughts on today’s funding announcement:

“We are pleased that Deerfield, a leader in healthcare investing, sees the potential of our business and that we have the opportunity to expand our relationship through this funding commitment. This funding will put us in a stronger financial position as we complete the lorcaserin Phase 3 pivotal program and prepare its NDA submission while advancing our various partnering discussions for lorcaserin and our earlier-stage drug candidates.”

As you guys know, ARNA has taken some heat by investors and by some of our readers – some of it kinda nasty:

• Derek Lowe gets ARNA fans fuming!!!

• Lief defends lorcaserin and confirms due diligence ongoing…

• Our initial rant really PO’ed some people…

Well guys, congrats…

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