AstraZeneca spin-off Entasis raises $50m to develop new antibiotics
An AstraZeneca spinoff has raised $50 million from investors to finance development of its pipeline of novel antibiotics.
Joining Entasis Therapeutics are investors including Frazier Healthcare Partners, Novo A/S, and Eventide Funds, whose contribution builds on the $40 million start-up funding from AstraZeneca last year.
Massachusetts-based Entasis also has rights to all of AstraZeneca's portfolio of discovery stage and early development anti-infectives.
Entasis has also expanded its board to include Nicholas Galakatos, co-founder and managing director of investment firm Clarus, which led the financing round.
James Topper, managing director of Frazier Healthcare Partners, and Peter Tuxen Bisgaard, senior partner of Novo Ventures (US), have also joined the board.
Disease targets include multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections such as Acinetobacter baumanii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacteriaceae, and a single-dose therapy for susceptible and drug resistant gonorrhoea.
Entasis' president and CEO, Manos Perros, said: "The proceeds from this financing will enable us to further advance our portfolio of innovative anti-infective products directed at addressing the global health crisis created by the rise in antibiotic resistance in a fundamentally differentiated way."
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