BioVersys receives funding to develop new class of antibiotics to treat multidrug-resistant bacterial infections

Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company BioVersys has been awarded up to $4.35 million in funding to develop a new class of antibiotics for its work in developing a new class of antibiotics.

The funding, which comes non-profit CARB-X, will go towards BioVersys’ work in developing antibiotics to treat life-threatening infections caused by ESKAPE pathogens, bacteria that have developed resistance to most antibiotics available today.

If certain milestones are reached, then BioVersys could receive up to $10.98 million in additional funding from CARB-X.

ESKAPE is an acronym for some of the world’s most life-threating, antibiotic-resistant pathogens - Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species. These pathogens are particularly dangerous to immune-compromised patients such as those on ventilators and young children in low-and middle-income countries.

“This funding from CARB-X aims to speed the development of an exciting new class of antibiotics to treat patients with life-threatening infections and to enhance global health security,” said Erin Duffy, R&D Chief of CARB-X.

“There has been a dire shortage of antibacterial innovation over the past half century and it is vital to accelerate the development of new approaches to address the spread of drug resistance.”

BioVersys is developing pyrrolocytosines (BV300), a class of small molecules that target the ribosome, an antibacterial target which plays an important role in the bacteria’s defense mechanism.

In preclinical testing, these molecules displayed a robust coverage of all relevant Gram-negative bacterial pathogens, as well as other bacteria on the priority and urgent-threat lists of pathogens published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr Sergio Lociuro, CSO of BioVersys: “We are pleased to receive this award from CARB-X and continue the discovery and development of new pyrrolocytosine antibiotics. Novel classes of broad-spectrum antibiotics with demonstrated in vitro and in vivo activity against all ESKAPE clinical isolates are like rare gems. We are excited to tackle the challenges of developing this totally new chemical class, potentially providing the first truly broadly active new class of antibiotics since decades.” 

Dr. Marc Gitzinger, CEO and founder of BioVersys: “We are grateful to CARB-X for their continued trust in the BioVersys team to develop innovation in the field of AMR and expand our already successful collaboration. The CARB-X award for BV300 is the second project funded by CARB-X that is being developed at BioVersys. This is a further validation of our high-quality science, strong team and commitment to developing novel AMR therapies for patients with unmet medical needs.”