Nosopharm secures funding of €870,000 to fight antibiotic resistance
Nosopharm has developed a new class of antibiotics and the funding will ensure their progression to preclinical development
Nosopharm, a French biotechnology company specialising in the development of anti-infective drugs, has received funding of €870,000 (US$1.18m).
The funding is part of the French government's three-year OOPERA project (Odilorhabdin: Preclinical optimisation and study to combat antibiotic resistance), which commenced in the first quarter of this year. A total of €1.6m has been allocated to this project.
Nimes-based Nosopharm has discovered the NOSO-95 molecule from an entomopathogenic bacterium of the Xenorhabdus genus. The firm says it is the first of a new class of Odilorhabdin antibiotics, which offers significant potential for the treatment of multidrug resistant hospital-acquired infections, particularly those caused by Gram-negative pathogens (including the Enterobacteriaceae NDM-1, KPC and BLSE, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii).
The funding will allow Nosopharm to continue to develop NOSO-95 and to advance it to regulatory preclinical development, immediately prior to human trials.
'This funding confirms that we are on the right track,' said Philippe Villain-Guillot, Chairman and CEO of Nosopharm. 'It will help us save time and make rapid progress in identifying an antibiotic candidate suitable for regulatory preclinical development.'
This funding confirms that we are on the right track
Nosopharm has used part of the funding to recruit three new members of staff in R&D, taking its total headcount to seven. They will add new expertise in medicinal chemistry, supplementing the firm's capabilities in drug discovery and microbiology and strengthening its technological platform.
To bring the project to completion, Nosopharm is supported by its partners: the joint Aix-Marseille University/French Army Biomedical Research Institute UMR-MD1 membrane transporters, chemoresistance and drug design research unit; and the UMR 5253 molecular architectures and nanostructured materials team (AM2N) at the Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier (involving researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie in Montpellier and Montpellier Universities 1 and 2).
