Antabio SAS, a leading biopharmaceutical company in the field of antibacterial drug discovery, announced today that it has received a Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Award to develop novel small molecule drugs for the treatment of chronic Pseudomonas infections in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients.
CF is the most common lethal, hereditary disease in Caucasian populations, affecting 1 in every 3,500 births in Europe with a current life expectancy of about 38 years among CF sufferers. Most disease-related morbidity and mortality in CF is caused by progressive lung disease as a result of bacterial infection and airway inflammation, primarily associated with the effects of chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) lung infection and the persistence of PA biofilms.
The Trust has awarded Antabio €4.0m over 2 years to fund the development of a small molecule inhibitor of PA biofilms to be used in combination with standard-of-care antibiotics. The objective of the project team, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Martin Everett, Head of Biology at Antabio, is to identify a potent and selective lead series with efficacy in animals which will be capable of further development into a drug to augment the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy and result in enhanced suppression of the infection.
“Although recent developments have led to improved survival of CF patients, there is still a critical need for further advances in care to improve survival and reduce the burden of the disease.” commented Marc Lemonnier, CEO of Antabio. “Antabio has built a fast-moving pipeline of candidate drugs targeting key resistance and virulence mechanisms used by pathogenic bacteria to cause life-threatening infections, such as those affecting CF sufferers. This second SDDI funding to be awarded to Antabio by the Wellcome Trust in as many years is a proof of our common commitment of developing innovative and groundbreaking treatments addressing the highest unmet medical needs in the anti-infective space”.
About Antabio
Antabio is a private biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibacterial resistance-breakers to treat drug-resistant infections in areas of highest unmet medical need. Two of Antabio’s programs have received Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Awards to date: [i] a novel, safe and efficacious inhibitor of bacterial metallo ß-lactamases to be combined with a carbapenem for the treatment of drug-resistant nosocomial infections and [ii] a first-in-class inhibitor of Pseudomonas virulence to be co-administered with standard-of-care antibiotics for the long-term management of chronic respiratory infections. The company’s lead product is expected to enter the clinic in 2019 with a fast track to anticipated marketing approval by 2021. Antabio has built a best in class, international team of experts in the field and is currently seeking to raise additional funds to progress its pipeline up to the next value inflection point. The Company is also looking to in-license additional assets focused on Gram-negative antibiotic resistant therapies. Please visit www.antabio.com and follow us on Twitter @antabio
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. We provide more than £700 million a year to support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine.