Biotech signs exclusive research licence to aid in discovery of new antibiotics

A biotech company, Deinove, has signed an exclusive research licence with Italian biopharma company, Naicons, to aid in the discovery of new antibiotics through the Antibiotics against Resistant Infectious Germs (AGIR) project.

The AGIR project is performed by Deinove along with its subsidiary Deinobiotics and is supported through funding by the Investments for the Future Program. It focuses on the discovery of new antibiotics through systematically exploring the potential of the living world, in particular micro-organisms.

This partnership is aimed at rapidly expanding the current collection of bacterial strains in the AGIR project, which stands at 6,000, to improve the chances of finding new antibiotic therapies. Naicons, which also specialises in in research for innovative antibiotics has a collection of 45,000 microbial strains.

Initially, Deinove will be granted access to 400 carefully selected strains, which it will then evaluate for antibiotic activities using its robotic technology platform. If a strain is found to be of interest, Deinove will have the opportunity to acquire it wither via a commercial licence or in full ownership to initiate the development of drug candidates.

“We chose to open our rare bacteria collection to Deinove as part of an exclusive agreement because we are confident that they have the resources to discover antibiotics through their breakthrough technologies and the know-how of their team. Our collection can provide a larger number of antibiotics than we can discover with our own resources,” said Stefano Donadio, CEO of Naicons.

“Our collaboration with Naicons is a good example of our antibiotics development model: this company historically rooted in the pharmaceutical sector has an interesting biological heritage which potential we can quickly explore, thanks to our reference platform,” added Emmanuel Petiot, CEO of Deinove. “Joining forces to advance faster is essential to win the battle against the development of antibiotic resistance. This type of collaboration must be extended in the near future if we truly want to respond to this global public health threat.”