Oppilotech Secures Funding From CARB-X to Fight Drug Resistant Infections

Thu, 30/03/2017 - 16:00

London, UK and Washington D.C, USA, 30th March 2017 / Sciad Newswire / Oppilotech Ltd, a biopharmaceutical start-up company founded to develop safe, novel, antibacterial therapies to treat bacterial infections, announced today it has been selected for funding by a new public-private partnership, CARB-X – The Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator.

Oppilotech’s programme, funded by CARB-X, is a 6-month project to undertake early screening work against a novel target involved in making a major constituent found on the outer envelope of Gram-negative bacteria. The work is aimed at developing a new class of antibiotics, a significant goal as it has been over 25 years since a new class was approved to treat acute infections.

Being part of CARB-X not only allows access to capital but also to a range of expertise including drug development and regulatory services.

CARB-X was launched jointly by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). It aims to address the urgent threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria which kills 700,000 people a year globally. 

CARB-X is funded by BARDA and the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation, and aims to invest up to $450 million over five years. Its goal is to accelerate the preclinical discovery and development of at least 20 new antibacterial products, and progress at least two new products into human trials during that time.

Ajay Mistry PhD, Founder/CEO of Oppilotech, stated, “We are delighted to be one of the first portfolio companies selected by CARB-X. Our project was vetted by leading antibiotic experts on the CARB-X Advisory Board and is a reflection of the high quality science we are pursuing to develop our pipeline of new anti-bacterials.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Oppilotech Ltd
Ajay Mistry PhD, Founder/CEO
T: +44(0)7881 811 739
E: ajay.mistry@oppilotech.com

Sciad Communications, Media Relations
Deborah Cockerill, Managing Partner
T: +44(0)20 7470 8802
E: Deborah@sciad.com

Emma Pickup, Account Executive
T: +44(0)20 7470 8801
E: Emma@sciad.com

Notes for Editors

About Oppilotech Ltd
Oppilotech is focused on the development of safe antibacterial compounds against drug resistant organisms. To develop these compounds, Oppilotech has built the most detailed, accurate, computational network model of bacterial cell envelope (LPS, peptidoglycan & phospholipids components) biogenesis that has ever been assembled. This approach allows us to identify viable targets. The model has already led to two early stage drug discovery programs that the company intends to develop to the clinic.
http://www.oppilotech.com

About CARB-X
CARB-X is the world’s largest public-private partnership devoted to antibacterial preclinical R&D.  Funded by BARDA and Wellcome Trust, with in-kind support from NIAID, we will spend $450 million from 2017-2021 to support innovative products moving towards human clinical trials.  CARB-X focuses on high priority drug-resistant bacteria, especially Gram-negatives. CARB-X is a charitable global public-private partnership led by Boston University School of Law.  Other partners include the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, MassBio, the California Life Sciences Institute and RTI International. For more information, please visit www.carb-x.org and follow us on Twitter @CARB_X