NovaBiotics has secured £1.8m in grant funding as part of a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) research competition aimed at tackling antimicrobial resistance in humans. The funding is to further develop Novamycin, NovaBiotics’ first-in-class antifungal compound with potential to combat life threatening and drug resistant blood stream and tissue fungal infections.
There is a clear and urgent need for new antifungal treatments for serious and life threatening fungal infections. Novamycin is active against fungi, including drug resistant forms, for which existing therapies do not work. Novamycin also has a unique mechanism of action that mitigates opportunities for resistance in fungi developing in the future. Novamycin is highly differentiated from existing antifungal treatments (of which there are only three main classes versus a dozen or so classes of antibacterial therapy) in how it rapidly kills its target fungi. Novamycin is also not associated with the potentially serious toxicity issues posed by some currently available antifungal treatment options. This is because its provenance is the natural antifungal defence system employed by the body and so unlike other antifungal agents that do not always distinguish healthy human cells from a fungal pathogen, Novamycin has no off-target pharmacology.
The £1.8m project aims to transform Novamycin from an exciting, laboratory-stage antifungal compound to a fully formulated antifungal drug candidate ready for clinical testing. This would represent a potential breakthrough in advancing Novamycin further towards addressing the significant need for new, safe, effective and therapies for life-threatening invasive fungal infections.
The grant was made as part of a £10m Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition run by Innovate UK on behalf of DHSC, with the aim of supporting the implementation of the Government’s UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy.
Dr Deborah O’Neil, CEO of NovaBiotics, commented: “This award allows us to accelerate the next key stage of Novamycin’s development towards being a much-needed solution to life threatening fungal infections against which the limited number of existing therapies are ineffective. This is a somewhat neglected and under-invested area of antimicrobial research and so we are delighted to have received this strategic funding through the SBRI contract as part of the Government’s commitment to combatting antimicrobial resistance.”
Dr Kath Mackay, interim director - Ageing Society, Health & Nutrition, Innovate UK said:
“Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global challenges in healthcare. It has been estimated that the AMR threat could lead to 10 million extra deaths a year and cost the global economy up to £75tn by 2050.
