Mutabilis has received a €5M investment from the Danish VC Novo Holdings’ REPAIR Impact Fund to fuel the development of a new class of antibiotics that could kill drug-resistant strains of gram-negative bacteria.
The French company will use the money to advance one of its preclinical drugs, a wide-spectrum intravenous antibiotic, to clinical trials. The drug is designed to act like a common class of antibiotics called beta-lactams. Unlike beta-lactams, however, Mutabilis’ drug is designed to be impervious to being broken down by bacterial enzymes, a tactic used by bacteria to resist beta-lactams.
Mutabilis’ drug could help to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance in gram-negative bacteria, a group that contains some of the most drug-resistant pathogens.
Novo Holdings’ REPAIR Impact Fund, worth €135M in total, was launched in 2018 by the Danish investor Novo Holdings to support companies fighting antibiotic resistance. The fund has invested in several companies including the Swiss biotech Polyphor, the Danish vaccine developer MinervaX, and the UK company Procarta Biosystems.
At the same time as its investment in Mutabilis, the REPAIR Impact Fund also announced a €3.5M investment in the US company IBT Vaccines, which will support the development of a vaccine that protects against infections by Staphylococcus aureus.
Mutabilis also has two other programs at the preclinical stage. The first is the company’s lead candidate, an intravenous antibiotic designed to treat infections by a group of gram-negative bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae. The second is an oral drug combination designed to treat drug-resistant urinary tract infections.
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