10.11.2019  |  Panel: Onus to stop antibiotic overuse is on prescribers, but advancements in new diagnostics, investments in drug development needed too

MEDPAGE TODAY | Improper use of antibiotics contributes to the spread of drug resistance and can often start in the doctor's office, according to an expert panel discussion titled Drug-Resistant Infections: Confronting an Escalating Crisis, part of The Forum at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. But winning the race against drug resistance is more complex than better prescribing practices. Better stewardship practices, and better economic incentives for new diagnostics, vaccines, new classes of antibiotics and other therapeutics are also urgently needed to address the rise of drug resistance around the world.

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10.02.2019  |  Despite ‘existential crisis’ in antibiotic development, hope persists, experts say

BIOWORLD | Experts examine the challenges and potential solutions in the antibiotic drug development industry in a panel discussion at the Infectious Disease Society of America's IDWeek 2019 in Washington, DC. Experts on the panel included Vivo Capital Managing Partner Chen Yu, Entasis Therapeutics Inc. CEO Manos Perros, and Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X, who put the spotlight on hope. Outterson noted that some governments and organizations are taking steps to ensure better funding of development and the commercial success of products that make it onto the market for use in patients. "The science is remarkable," he said. The key will be developing something that can help those preclinical projects move through not only to approval, but to break-even commercial success, so the company and ecosystem can go forward."

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09.30.2019  |  Q&A: BARDA Director Rick Bright Discusses New Programs, Focus on Diagnostics

GENOMEWEB | Rick Bright, Director of the US Government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), speaks about revving up his organizations’ efforts to support the development of innovative antibiotics, vaccines, diagnostics and other urgently needed products to address the global rise of drug-resistant bacteria. BARDA is tasked with securing the US from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, as well as from pandemic influenza and emerging infectious diseases. It is the US founding partner of CARB-X and invests in programs and partnerships like CARB-X, to help achieve this goal. BARDA funds the development of many new products. For 2020, the requested BARDA budget is $1.6 billion, including $322 million for advanced research and development, $180 million for CARB-X, $735 million for Project BioShield, and $256 million for pandemic influenza.

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09.27.2019  |  The first diagnostic emerges from the CARB-X portfolio

C&EN | A tool that can identify infections and drug-resistant bacteria within hours is the first diagnostic product to emerge from the Carb-X partnership and could be the first of its kind to market. T2 Biosystems, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, created the diagnostic, called the T2 Resistance Panel. It relies on nuclear magnetic resonance to identify pathogens in the bloodstream. Carb-X, a public-private partnership that develops drugs, vaccines, and other products to tackle antibiotic resistance, awarded the company $2 million in 2017 to build the panel. T2 recently announced a contract worth up to $69 million from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to begin clinical trials.

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09.04.2019  |  Bugging Out – Drug-resistant pathogens, antibiotics … and the race against the clock

CONTINGENCIES | The rise of superbugs is an increasingly alarming threat to public health and modern medicine. Author Michael Malloy examines the colorful history of antibiotic development and how we got to where we are today, the hurdles we face - economic, scientific and societal - in addressing bacteria that is increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

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08.28.2019  |  Biotechs fight fears of ‘antibiotic apocalypse’

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08.15.2019  |  Vaccine against superbugs could be a game changer, say researchers

TELEGRAPH | Integrated Biotherapeutics’ vaccine, which aims to protect against the potentially deadly Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, remains in the early stages of development but could be a “game changer” in efforts to stem antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The S. aureus bacteria is one of 12 earmarked by the World Health Organization as a “priority pathogen” – meaning investment in new drugs is urgently needed – because it is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. CARB-X has just announced additional funding for Integrated Biotherapeutics - thanks to grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Fund (GAMRIF) - to support the company’s plan to develop a freeze-dried version of the vaccine that could be used in developing countries.

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07.28.2019  |  Insider Q&A – Fighting Antibiotic Resistance, interview with Kevin Outterson, CARB-X Executive Director

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07.09.2019  |  We can’t despair about our antibiotic crisis

WASHINGTON POST | Yes, we should be scared about the rise of drug resistance. But we need not feel helpless. There are solutions, writes Michelle Williams, Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a compelling opinion piece on solutions to address the rising drug-resistance crisis.  We need to reduce misuse and overuse of antibiotics. We must also put in place financial incentives, in addition to CARB-X’s support of innovative R&D, to ensure that new medicines and diagnostics reach the market and patients who need them.  Reversing the tide of antibiotic resistance won’t be easy. Experts agree that this crisis is solvable with science and with money. The time to act is now.

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06.29.2019  |  G20 leaders to make united efforts to major economic challenges, including AMR

JAPAN TIMES | G20 leaders meeting in Osaka, Japan, tackled a number of global threats and economic issues, including equality and global health. Leaders called on G20 members to accelerate efforts to address the threat of drug resistant bacteria. In their statement, they recognized the need to accelerate efforts based on the One-Health approach to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). They called on G20 members to promote R&D and encouraged all stakeholders to act and coordinate on global efforts to combat AMR. “We recognize the need for policy measures for infection prevention and reduction of excessive antimicrobial usage. Further action should be taken to promote stewardship of and access to antimicrobials. Noting the ongoing work done by Global AMR R&D Hub, we will promote R&D to tackle AMR. We call on interested G20 members and Global AMR R&D Hub to analyze push and pull mechanisms to identify best models for AMR R&D and to report back to relevant G20 Ministers.”

For more on the G20 Summit, click here.

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06.19.2019  |  Sustainable Discovery and Development of Antibiotics – Is a Nonprofit Approach the Future?

NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE | An alternative model for funding and sustaining the discovery and development of new antibiotics is overdue. The authors propose the establishment of non-profit organizations to drive the development of these innovative life-saving drugs, and suggest a one-time investment of $1 billion to create several nonprofits to discover and develop new approaches. This would be a less expensive approach than the proposed establishment of new $1-billion rewards for products that achieve regulatory approval for use in patients, which is widely supported in the AMR research funding community.

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06.17.2019  |  Investors Shun Startups that Target Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs

THINKADVISOR | Even as deadly strains of bacteria proliferate around the world, big drugmakers are getting out of the antibiotics market, leaving many new products in the hands of tiny startups. The latest company to close its research activities is Tetraphase. It is a challenging industry but industry insiders say it has never been this bad, and it will get worse. Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X issues a dire warning: The way we reimburse and pay for antibiotics has fundamentally crashed. The government needs to act.

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06.14.2019  |  Seeking the Path of Least Resistance

HARVARD PUBLIC HEALTH MAGAZINE | Rising antibiotic resistance is not just a medical crisis - it’s a scientific, economic and political and moral problem. In this in-depth look at the history of ‘miracle’ antibiotics, and today's challenges related to funding research and delivering new antibacterial products to patients, Harvard Public Health Editor Madeline Drexler looks at potential solutions that could help society win the battle against drug-resistant bacteria. Solving the problem will mean pulling on biology, economics, politics, culture, psychology, and moral choices. But the big question is - will we rise to the challenge before it’s too late?

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06.13.2019  |  Inside CARB-X, the Boston Fund on the Front Lines Fighting Antibiotic Resistance

BOSTINNO | Occupying unassuming offices at Boston University, CARB-X is the global leader in the business of accelerating antibacterial R&D. So far, CARB-X has awarded more than $100 million to support the development of products that are urgently needed in the fight against drug resistance. If it weren’t for CARB-X some of these projects might be abandoned for lack of support. Still, CARB-X is not a cure-all. If society wants new antibiotics, we will have to find new ways to pay for them. CARB-X Executive Director Kevin Outterson says that greater incentives are needed to drive innovation, which could include incentives that would reward products that are approved for use in patients. The private industry economic model for antibacterials is badly broken, and while CARB-X is a vital and essential part of the solution, it alone cannot fix the problem

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05.28.2019  |  The Radical Plan to Change How Antibiotics Get Developed

WIRED | Maryn McKenna writes that it may be time to stop asking pharma to make antibiotics, and instead, create some other entity - a government institute, an international nonprofit, or an organization like a utility - to perform the task of discovering and developing new antibiotics to treat drug-resistant infections. The traditional structure of the pharma business, which works so well to bring forth cancer and cardiovascular drugs, simply cannot profitably produce the new antibiotics that society needs so urgently. But how do you safeguard the innovative ‘private sector’ culture that is required to produce innovation and new drugs? We need to re-invent the economic model.

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05.18.2019  |  ‘Post-antibiotics’ world is here, experts say

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05.15.2019  |  Poor Economic Incentives Are Leaving Doctors Without Antibiotics

NEWSWEEK | Medical researchers have known for decades that the pipeline for new antibiotics would one day run dry. That day has arrived. In some cases, doctors have no drugs to give their patients for infections that once were treatable but now are life-threatening. Although researchers have many good leads, the bigger problem is a lack of financial incentives to bring new treatments to market. Dr. Helen Boucher of Tufts Medical Center in Boston discusses some solutions to the rising crisis of drug resistant bacteria, including how organizations like CARB-X are supporting drug development. But more is needed, she explains.

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05.10.2019  |  Building New Models To Support The Ailing Antibiotics Market

FORBES | BARDA’s Director Dr. Rick Bright argues that despite the best efforts and success of organizations like BARDA and CARB-X, we need to more to stimulate innovation that will address the rising drug resistance crisis. BARDA simply cannot continue to provide non-dilutive investment, only to have companies like Achaogen collapse and their newly minted antibiotics shelved or lost completely. BARDA is ready to lead and work with others to find solutions.

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05.07.2019  |  Our antibiotics are becoming useless: UN report

VOX | By 2050, 10 million people could die each year from diseases that have grown resistant to drugs, according to a new UN report, the latest of many severe warnings issued about the rise of drug-resistant bacteria. To solve this issue, we need to stop treating antibiotics as if they’re any other product on the free market, where value is determined by the number of units sold. Instead, we should think of antibiotics as public goods that are crucial to a functioning society — like infrastructure or national security. And the government should fund their research and development. But is the public informed enough about this issue to pressure politicians into doing the right thing? How many more people will have to die from infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens before politicians act?

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05.03.2019  |  Antibiotics aren’t profitable enough for Big Pharma to make more

BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK | Public health experts are calling on governments and world leaders to set up new incentives to reward companies for bringing drugs to market that are effective against drug-resistant bacteria. The recent bankruptcy of Achaogen is the latest example of an economic model that needs to be fixed. Private industry cannot be counted on for solutions to the growing global drug-resistance crisis. New incentives are urgently needed.

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04.30.2019  |  Antibiotic Resistance: the small Indian biotech hoping to solve a big problem

TELEGRAPH | The antibiotics market is broken, and while some progress is being made supporting innovation through organizations like CARB-X, governments and world leaders need to step up with greater incentives and market rewards. In the meantime, small biotechs like the Indian start-up Bugworks have been driving innovation. With the support of CARB-X, Bugworks is developing a novel broad-spectrum antibiotic to kill multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria – a drug that has the potential to treat serious urinary tract infections. Bugworks founder Anand Anandkumar is hoping that governments will put in place incentives to ensure that companies like can continue to develop antibiotics and other life-saving products needed to address the superbug crisis. CARB-X supports development to phase one, Anandkumar says, but support to take it through clinical trials and onto the market is urgently needed.

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04.25.2019  |  The Antibiotics Business is Broken But There’s a Fix

WIRED | The world is running out of useful antibiotics because the rise of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is undermining their effectiveness. Big pharma is not inclined to invest in discovering and developing more and better antibiotics and small companies are struggling to survive, even if they manage to get a new product approved for use in patients. Maryn McKenna is an Ideas contributor for WIRED and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. In this article, she looks at what governments and world leaders should be doing to fix the broken business of antibiotics and to make sure we get the innovative antibiotics and other life-saving products urgently needed in the race against drug-resistance.

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04.17.2019  |  Achaogen bankruptcy raises worry over antibiotic pipeline

CIDRAP | Biopharmaceutical company Achaogen announced that it is filing for bankruptcy, a loss that antibiotic development advocates say is evidence of the need for new incentives and payment models for a broken antibiotic market. The bankruptcy comes despite financial support from government and funding organizations like CARB-X, and despite the fact the company has a product on the market. It is evidence that more incentives are needed, in particular push incentives that will provide greater rewards for products that are approved for use in patients, advocates say.

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04.10.2019  |  The Antibiotics Market is Broken and Won’t Fix Itself

THE HILL | Private-sector investment in antibiotics has been falling for decades and there is no sign that trend will change. We have made important steps in the right direction, with funding organizations like CARB-X, to support innovation to address the rise of drug resistance. But we have not done enough. We need to fundamentally change the way the market for new antibiotics works. In an opinion piece that echoes a recent letter from antibacterial research leaders, the Pew Charitable Trust’s Alan Coukell and Tufts University’s Dr. Helen Boucher call on the US Congress to take action to establish “pull incentives” to help fix the problem. Pull incentives would make it more attractive for companies to invest in antibacterials to fight superbugs. Ensuring that the US has effective antibiotics is not a luxury - it is a necessity for protecting medical advances, preventing the spread of resistant pathogens, and saving lives.

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03.19.2019  |  AMR Conference in Berlin: Call for better incentives

EUROPEAN BIOTECHNOLOGY | “We need the political willingness to put money on the table”, said Peter Beyer, Senior Advisor at the World Health Organisation at the “Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics 2019” conference in Berlin, which attracted around 330 stakeholders from small and large pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, major global funding initiatives and financiers such as CARB-X, FIND, JPIAMR, GARDP, ENABLE or Novo’s REPAIR impact fund etc., and from applied sciences and national hubs. At the conference, it was announced that the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research was joining the CARB-X partnership, committing 39 million euros to CARB-X.

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03.14.2019  |  Germany joins the CARB-X partnership: Invests €39M to incentivise the early development of antibiotics, vaccines, and diagnostics to combat AMR

EUROPEAN BIOTECHNOLOGY | Germany has joined the CARB-X partnership. Under the four-year agreement signed earlier this week with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany will invest €39m to incentivise the early development of antibiotics, vaccines, and diagnostics to combat resistance to antimicrobials (AMR).Germany will provide an additional €1m in direct support to a consortium of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF, Braunschweig), the Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines (PEI, Langen) and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM, Berlin), which is set to join the CARB-X Global Accelerator Network. The move is part of Germany's overall €500M R&D budget in the next 10 years to fight against antimicrobial resistance.

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03.14.2019  |  Backgrounder: Why CARB-X is building its accelerator network in Europe?

EUROPEAN BIOTECHNOLOGY | CARB-X has expanded its accelerator network, with a focus on building the network particularly in Europe. CARB-X Executive Director Kevin Outterson explains in this Q&A how CARB-X is building its portfolio of antibacterial products and why it is essential for CARB-X to partner with world-class accelerators to support the great science in the portfolio.

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03.05.2019  |  Can Netflix show Americans how to cut the cost of drugs?

NEW YORK TIMES | Can American healthcare learn something from Netflix and Hulu, that charge flat subscription fees no matter how many movies you watch. Some countries have negotiated deals with pharmaceutical companies to get all the brand name drugs they can use for several years for a flat fee. In her opinion piece, journalist Tina Rosenberg argues that the United States can learn a lot from economic models that exist in other countries, companies and therapy areas, including in the evolving economic model for antibacterial products to prevent, diagnose and treat drug-resistant infections. Could the emerging push-and-pull-incentive economic model hold some of the answers?

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03.04.2019  |  T2 lands breakthrough devices designation for panel that can detect 13 resistance genes

MEDICAL DEVICE DAILY | T2 Biosystems has won breakthrough device designation for the T2resistance panel, an exciting new diagnostic under development with the help of CARB-X, which can detect 13 resistance genes from both Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens from a single patient blood sample. The device, if approved and used in clinical setting, could radically improve the diagnosis of life-threatening bacterial infections, speed and improve the delivery of treatment to patients, and save money and precious time. Currently it can take days to provide a reliable diagnosis. The 13 genes identified include those largely resistant to antimicrobial drugs that are crucial in the treatment of bacterial infections, including carbapenems, vancomycin and penicillin.

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03.04.2019  |  Vaccines work – for superbugs too

MEDICAL PRESS | We need to supercharge the global response to anti-microbial resistance. Developing new vaccines against superbugs would help build the world’s arsenal in the fight against drug resistance. Wellcome Trusts’ Ed Whiting calls for more effort to be directed toward the research and development of new vaccines, and he calls out CARB-X as a way to channel investment into R&D that will produce urgently needed vaccines that could save lives.

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02.26.2019  |  AMR network CARB-X expands its global reach with accelerators to boost support for its growing portfolio

EUROPEAN BIOTECHNOLOGY | CARB-X has added six new accelerator partners to its Global Accelerator Network to increase support for development research projects it funds to fight the rise of drug-resistant bacteria. The new accelerators located in the US, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, UK and India  join CARB-X’s existing accelerator partners, CLSI, MassBio and RTI International in the US and the Wellcome Trust in the UK to provide scientific, technical and business support to the growing numbers of CARB-X-funded antibacterial research projects. The new accelerator partners are BaselArea.Swiss, BioInnovation Institute (BII), Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), and Institute for Life Sciences Entrepreneurship (ILSE). 

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02.25.2019  |  Why we need public-private partnerships in drug R&D

PHARMA BOARDROOM | Pierre Meulien, Executive Director of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) in Europe, outlines the value of public-private partnerships in drug research and development and highlights areas where these collaborations are proving their worth in overcoming some of the most challenging threats to our health. 

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02.25.2019  |  Kean University’s ILSE joins the CARB-X accelerator network in fight against drug resistant superbugs

KEAN UNIVERSITY | ILSE joins the CARB-X Global Accelerator Network, building on New Jersey’s history of entrepreneurship and innovation, which includes the discovery of the antibiotic streptomycin in the 1940s.

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02.18.2019  |  Free Resource Against Infections – Novartis contributes to PEW’s SPARK open-science database

The open-access Shared Platform for Antibiotic Research and Knowledge (SPARK) created by the Pew Charitable Trusts just got a boost from Novartis, which has shared data from its antibiotic research programs. This comes on the heels of biopharmaceutical company Achaogen’s recent commitment to give SPARK data from its own discontinued antibiotic research program.

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02.18.2019  |  Viral, bacterial diagnostics bolster antimicrobial stewardship

HEALIO Infectious Diseases in Children | Pediatricians and other health professionals need better, faster and cost-effective diagnostic tests to diagnose bacterial and viral infections in children, many health professionals say. Too often antibiotics are prescribed when not needed, contributing to the rise of drug-resistance, and health problems are not addressed adequately or quickly enough because high-quality rapid diagnostics are not available in many clinical settings. Many new diagnostics are in development.

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02.12.2019  |  Antimicrobial resistance: The Ten Commandments – Two Years On – A Response

MICROBIOLOGIST | Two years after Lord Jim O’Neill led the UK AMR review to its final report, which recommended 10 Commandments to address AMR, the Society for Applied Microbiology takes stock of the achievements, and the challenges that remain. While progress has been made in the fight against the rise of superbugs, more improvements and action are urgently needed. The Microbiologist special report, published in December 2018, includes a chapter on Commandment 8: Establish a Global Innovation Fund for early-stage and non-commercial research, written by Kevin Outterson, CARB-X Executive Director.

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02.05.2019  |  Twenty new drugs in pipeline to fight superbugs

THE TIMES | There is hope that new antibiotics and other life saving drugs will be delivered to patients in the coming years, according to Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X, in an interview with The Times. There are exciting new scientific approaches and promising new drugs progressing in CARB-X’s global pipeline. 

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01.29.2019  |  We can win the war on superbugs but only with the right investment

THE TELEGRAPH | The UK is showing the world that it is leading by example with its pilot project to reward drug developers that deliver new urgently needed antibiotics to the health system. It is a plan that could help incentivize innovation and complement the work of CARB-X and others to fund and support the development of new AMR products. Now it is time for other countries and world leaders to step up as well to commit to resource this approach fully. It is time to show that there is political will at the highest level to stop the rise of superbugs. A commentary by Wellcome Trust’s Jeremy Knox.

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01.17.2019  |  CARB-X has awarded ContraFect additional funds to support the development of its lysin therapeutics

GLOBE NEWSWIRE | CARB-X has awarded ContraFect additional funds to support the continued development of its lysin therapeutics program to treat serious invasive infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa). This is an increase to the original CARB-X award announced in March 2017. The initial award was $1.1 million, with the possibility of $1 million more if certain project milestones were met. Upon achievement of those milestones, CARB-X decided earlier this year to award the previously announced option of $1 million, plus an additional $1.3 million to continue to support the development of the project.

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01.08.2019  |  Forge awarded next stage of product funding from CARB-X for its novel IV/Oral LpxC antibiotic

PR NEWSWIRE | Forge Therapeutics, Inc. (Forge), a biotechnology company developing novel medicines targeting metalloenzymes has received notice from CARB-X that based on the achievement of technical milestones, CARB-X will proceed with the next stage of product funding for Forge's novel IV/Oral LpxC antibiotic to treat urinary tract infections including MDR infections caused by CRE and ESBL. In March 2017, Forge was one of the first recipients of a cost-sharing award to advance promising antibacterial candidates through the early stages of development. Forge was initially awarded $4.8M over 15 months from CARB-X and as a second stage, will receive up to $4M million in additional support.

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01.02.2019  |  Fight against superbugs is crucial to the the US’s biodefense

PEW TRUSTS | In this insightful Q&A, Rick Bright, director of the Biomedical and Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), explains why the fight against superbugs is so crucial to not only public health in the US, but also to national security. Drug resistant superbugs complicate wounds, exacerbate casualties associated with natural and manmade emergencies, and can be used as weapons. Bright highlights the steps the US is taking as part of the National Biodefense Strategy to reduce the spread of superbugs domestically and internationally, and to accelerate the development of new drugs, diagnostic tests and vaccines. BARDA is a CARB-X founder and funding partner.

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