Superbug spin-out secures seed funding

Procarta Biosystems, the company spun-out of the John Innes Centre in 2007 to develop a technology designed to defeat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, has received significant seed funding.

The Rainbow Seed Fund and the Iceni Seedcorn Fund have provided £320,000 (Euro 401,000) to allow Procarta to develop further its DNA decoy technique that aims to restore antibiotic efficacy against resistant "superbugs", such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).

Procarta's pioneering technology is based on injectable DNA therapies, called Transcription Factor Decoys (TFDs). These are short pieces of DNA that inactivate the resistance genes the bacteria need to counter antibiotics.

This new funding will initially allow Procarta to develop TFDs that prevent resistance to vancomycin, the so-called antibiotic of last resort. "We plan to be able to use this latest support to further validate the outstanding potential of our proprietary approach to combating resistant superbugs," said Procarta's research director, Dr Michael McArthur.

The company says its unique technology can breathe new life into existing drugs and prolong the commercial usefulness of antibiotics. The scientific founders, Dr Michael McArthur and Professor Mervyn Bibb, hope to move to pre-clinical trials in 2009 with their first product, after which Procarta will work with pharmaceutical companies to bring it to market.

Having established the proof of concept with vancomycin, Procarta plans to build a strong product pipeline by applying its proprietary technology to reinvigorate the use of a broad range of valuable antibiotics.

Procarta Biosystems will be moving its operations to the Norwich Bioincubator on 1 July 2008 and has also recently appointed Dr Nigel Crockett as commercial director. Dr Crockett has more than 15 years of experience in the pharma-biotech sector, especially in early stage r&d collaborations and licensing.