Antibiotics developer Bugworks Research has been backed by Utec in its bid to commercialise a treatment for hospital superbugs.
India-based antibiotics developer Bugworks Research has obtained $9m in a series A round led by University of Tokyo Edge Capital (Utec), an investment vehicle for the institution, YourStory reported yesterday.
Investment firm Acquipharma Holdings also took part in the round alongside 3One4 Capital and unnamed biotech-focused angel investors.
Founded in 2014, Bugworks is developing a group of antibiotics based on its Elude discovery platform to tackle dangerous gram-negative bacterial infections with urgent unmet needs. Such infections cause life-threatening illnesses including pneumonia and sepsis.
Bugworks will concentrate on treating hospital-acquired infections, known as superbugs, that have become immune to existing antibiotics over the years.
The Elude platform stops drugs from binding to bacterial mechanisms known as Efflux Pumps which would otherwise render treatments ineffective.
Elude’ first antibiotic is a dual-target bacterial topoisomerase inhibitor which it says has the potential to fight all pathogens prioritised by the UN agency World Health Organization, as well as targets from US public health agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The company hopes the drug will be less prone to creating resistant strains of bacterial infection.
Bugworks will use the funding for clinical trials of the drug in addition to pre-clinical testing on one “backup” asset. Atsushi Usami, a partner at UTEC, will join the company’s board of directors.
The business previously raised $1.6m in equity from undisclosed investors in a 2015 round, according to a regulatory filing.
Atsushi Usami said: “The rise of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) is an urgent global issue that needs to be tackled on war footing. Bugworks addresses the AMR crisis by creating a new class of antibiotics targeting all known classes of multi-drug resistant bacteria.”
