A Boston accelerator has awarded New Haven antibiotic maker Melinta Therapeutics Inc. up to $6.2 million to speed its development of a new class of drugs to fight superbugs.
Melinta on Monday announced the partnership with the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, known as CARB-X, a public-private partnership that targets the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria.
Under the agreement, Melinta will get up to $2.3 million initially, with the possibility of $3.9 million more based on the achievement of certain milestones, the company said.
The funding will support the drug maker’s ESKAPE Pathogen Program, which is developing a new class of antibiotics to treat all six superbugs. Each letter in ESKAPE stands for bacteria with multiple drug-resistance features.
Melinta went to market in January with another antibiotic, Baxdela, which treats serious skin infections caused by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and other pathogens.
“It’s vital we accelerate the discovery of new and innovative approaches to addressing the rising threat of drug resistance,” said Kevin Outterson, executive director of CARB-X. “It has been more than half a century since the last new class was approved.”
Based at Boston University, CARB-X was launched in 2016 by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the charitable foundation Wellcome Trust.
Meanwhile, ReNetX Bio Inc., a New Haven biotech developing treatments for spinal cord injuries, closed on a Series A funding round, the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven said Monday.
The company did not disclose the amount of the deal, but it told the SEC in a recent filing that it raised at least $1.7 million.
The company was founded based on technology from Dr. Stephen Strittmatter’s work at Yale University to restore neurologic function after central nervous system injury.
The technology allows neurons in the brain to regrow by inhibiting factors that prevent them from regenerating after injury. The company says the drug has the potential to reverse damage caused by spinal cord injuries, stroke or glaucoma.
Spring Mountain Capital and Connecticut Innovations, the state’s venture capital arm, co-led the funding round.
Officials said the funding round was oversubscribed, a testament to the potential of the company’s technology.
The company also raised $7 million in 2017 from the Wings of Life Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for spinal cord injury.
Natalie Missakian can be reached at news@newhavenbiz.com
