Date: 2017-03-28
Type of information: Capital increase
Company: Nosopharm (France)
Investors: Auriga Partners (France) Kreaxi (France) Alto Invest (France)
Amount: €2.4 million
Funding type: financing round
Planned used: Nosopharm, a biotechnology company specialized in the research and development of new antimicrobial molecules, will use these funds to accelerate the regulatory preclinical development of its first antibiotic molecule, NOSO-95179. This molecule targets Enterobacteriaceae, a priority pathogen according to the WHO. First-in-man studies are expected to start in 2019. Nosopharm will submit IND or IMPD applications for NOSO-95179 in 2018, with a view to first-in-man studies in 2019. The molecule was discovered consecutively to the lead optimization of NOSO-95, the first molecule in the new class of Odilorhabdin antibiotics. Its discovery stems from a bacterium of the Xenorhabdus genus. NOSO-95179 inhibits bacterial translation with a new mode of action. Its target indication is the treatment of polymyxin and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections. NOSO-95179 shows clear in vitro antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant clinical isolates (e.g., NDM-1, MCR-1), along with in vivo efficacy in different murine infection models and good tolerability. No cross-resistance with currently used antibiotics was observed. In December 2015, Nosopharm has been selected to join ENABLE (European Gram-negative Antibacterial Engine). ENABLE is one of seven projects in the New Drugs For Bad Bugs (ND4BB) consortium, part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative’s (IMI’s) antibiotic resistance program. This €100m ($106m) project aims to identify at least three antibacterial lead molecules with promising antibacterial activity, two antibacterial clinical candidate molecules and to enter at least one compound into preclinical and Phase 1 clinical studies. NOSO-95179 is one of the most advanced program of this project. ENABLE funds 75% of Nosopharm’s internal R&D costs while the program is active. Nosopharm will also launch other upstream research programs in the field of infectious diseases using its innovative anti-infective biotechnology platform. This platform is based on the medicinal mining of an original microbial bioresource: the bacterial genera Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus, symbiotic bacteria of the entomopathogenic nematodes from the genera Steinernema and Heterorhabditis. Today, over one hundred new molecules produced by Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus have been described. Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus represent a high-value bioresource for drug discovery.
Others: * On March 28, 2017, Nosopharm, a biotechnology company specialized in the research and development of new antimicrobial molecules, announced a financing round of €2.4 million ($2.6M), with Auriga Partners, Kreaxi and Alto Invest joining the company’s long-standing shareholders.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
