News

News Archive

  • 12.10.2018  |  What’s holding pharma back from the next antibiotic breakthrough?

    STAT | Developing new antibiotics is risky business and the pay-off uncertain. New economic models are emerging to stimulate R&D, including non-profit organizations like CARB-X, to accelerate the development of new antibiotics and other life-saving products the world needs. But more is needed - market incentives as well as greater engagement by big pharma. The next few years will be critical for companies developing new antibiotics. An opinion piece by Peter Bak, VP for Life Science Strategy at the US consulting firm Back Bay Life Science Advisors.

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  • 12.07.2018  |  Kevin Outterson on CARB-X

    THE AMR STUDIO PODCAST | Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X, speaks about how his non-profit public-private partnership is accelerating antibacterial research that aims to address the global rising threat of drug-resistant bacteria.

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  • 12.03.2018  |  Therapy areas of the future

    PHARMAFIELD | An article on where the next big breakthroughs should happen in medical research. Breakthroughs in antibacterial research are possible as long as product developers are given the time and money to bring products to market. The CARB-X portfolio has more than 30 projects, including 10 projects focused on developing new classes of antibiotics to treat drug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections, such as projects led by Amicrobe and Vedanta. If only one of these innovative research projects succeeds, it will be the most important antibiotic innovation in our lifetime, says Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X.

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  • 11.02.2018  |  Japan India Startup Hub names Bugworks as one of its success stories

    JAPAN INDIA STARTUP HUB - The Japan India Startup Hub, an initiative between the governments of Japan and India to promote joint innovation in both countries, has featured Bugworks as one of the Hub’s success stories. Bugworks, which is funded by CARB-X, has raised a total of US$9 Million in Series A funding to develop antibiotics to fight superbugs. The funding will help Bugworks advance its novel bacterial topoisomerase inhibitor program toward clinical trials.

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  • 10.24.2018  |  Science vs. superbugs: A new wave of solutions is on the way

    SINGULARITY HUB | Hollywood is chockablock with movies about apocalypses, but it is the real-world headlines about the rising threat of superbugs are really scary. Science writer Peter Rejcek looks at some challenges and solutions to addressing drug-resistant bacteria, including the work the CARB-X partnership is doing to fund the development of innovative antibiotics, rapid diagnostics, vaccines and other life-saving products.

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  • 10.22.2018  |  Achaogen to share data from data from its LpxC inhibitor program on the Pew Charitable Trusts’ cloud-based database SPARK

    CIDRAP | Achaogen will share scientific data from a discontinued antibiotic development program with other researchers, a move that could help speed the delivery of future antibiotics. The data will be shared on Pew’s open-access database SPARK. The data-sharing agreement was facilitated by CARB-X, which is pressing other scientists to share learnings that will help accelerate antibacterial research.

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  • 10.16.2018  |  Drug-resistant bugs could cause more deaths than cancer by 2050

    THE IRISH TIMES | A post-antibiotic era, means an end to modern medicines as we know it. The Times looks at the rise of drug resistant bacteria, what organizations like CARB-X are doing, and how Ireland is working with other countries in Europe and around the world to address the problem.

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  • 10.13.2018  |  Can we kill antibiotic-resistant superbugs?

    NANALYZE | A primer on the rising threat of superbugs and a look at some of the companies, including CARB-X funded companies, that are developing new antibiotics and other products to address drug-resistant bacteria.

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  • 10.12.2018  |  Antibiotics may soon become useless. Now what?

    WIRED | Antibiotics are as fundamental to the health of society and national security as intact roads, reliable electricity supply and robust sewage processing. Continued availability of effective antibiotics requires long-term planning, which might mean drug development in ways that a free market won’t allow. Maryn McKenna writes about the challenges of delivering new antibiotics, some possible solutions and the vital role that CARB-X plays in supporting the development of new products.

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  • 10.09.2018  |  Why Peter Thiel (Thiel Foundation’s Breakout Labs) is backing a tiny start-up waging war against the global superbug crisis

    CNBC | The void in antibacterial drug development is spurring many small biotechs to look for solutions to the growing superbug market. SciBac, a company funded by CARB-X, is developing a microbe pill to boost the body’s microbiome in the gut, lungs and skin to kill drug resistant bacteria. And organizations like the Thiel Foundation are taking notice.

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  • 09.27.2018  |  Overcoming bacterial resistance – the role of software in the fight against bacterial resistance

    SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD | Dr. Clare Samson discusses the role of computer-aided drug design, algorithms for screening compounds and computational characterization of microbes using genomics in drug development. She highlights the work of CARB-X-funded companies Seres and Forge, as well as the role CARB-X plays in supporting early development research.

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  • 09.05.2018  |  Summit Therapeutics nominates CARB-X-funded SMT-571 as lead clinical candidate for treatment of gonorrhoea

    NASDAQ | Summit Therapeutics has nominated SMT-571 as its lead clinical candidate from its first gonorrhoea series. SMT-571 represents a new antibiotic class. New mechanism antibiotics are important in the fight against gonorrhoea, as the pathogen is becoming increasingly resistant to the only recommended treatment option.

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  • 07.03.2018  |  MicuRx files IPO on Hong Kong exchange

    ENDPOINTS NEWS l Shanghai- and San Francisco-based MicuRx has filed an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange to raise funds to advance its antibiotic contezolid acefosamil MRX-4 program, and also invest further in its CARB-X-backed preclinical polymicin antibiotic project.

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  • 06.19.2018  |  Life sciences sector focus for UK-US event

    GOV.UK | UK Secretary of State Dr. Liam Fox discusses how the UK is committed to the continued growth of the life sciences sector by highlighting measures such as the £20 million in funding the government has pledged to the joint UK-US CARB-X project to address the global rise of antimicrobial resistance.

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  • 06.08.2018  |  An unlikely biotech investor: The government

    FORBES | The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has launched a new funding initiative called DRIVe (Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures). DRIVe’s mission is to accelerate research, development and availability of transformative countermeasures to protect Americans in the event of public health emergencies such as chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear disasters or attacks. The DRIVe initiative builds on BARDA’s involvement in CARB-X. A commentary by Steve Brozak.

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  • 05.31.2018  |  Dept. of Existential Threats: Who’s worried about superbugs?

    INSIDE PHILANTHROPY | The involvement of the UK government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in CARB-X, with funding of more than $50 million over the next three years, underscores the growing concern about the global threat posed by superbugs. This is a challenge with implications for all the world’s countries, rich and poor alike.  

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  • 05.22.2018  |  Superbugs could render even the most routine procedures deadly, warns chief medical officer

    THE TELEGRAPH | The NHS may soon be unable to safely offer caesareans and hip operations because of soaring levels of antibiotic resistance in British hospitals, the chief medical officer for England is warning. Professor Dame Sally Davies’s comments come as the Department of Health pledged £30m to fund the fight against deadly superbugs through investment in cutting-edge drugs and diagnostics.

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  • 05.22.2018  |  By 2050 one person will die every three seconds if we don’t tackle antibiotic resistance

    THE TELEGRAPH | We need a united, “one world”, “one health”, multisector response and it requires everyone and every country to stand up and play their part in the response. What is at stake here is nothing less than the basic integrity of modern medicine. A commentary by Professor Dame Sally Davies.

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  • 05.22.2018  |  Government pledges more than £30m to fight superbugs

    THE TELEGRAPH | The UK government has given the fight against deadly superbugs a boost with a pledge of £31m for the development of new drugs and diagnostics, including a £20m award to CARB-X, the world’s leading public-private partnership dedicated to supporting antibacterial research to combat drug-resistance.

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  • 04.11.2018  |  Innovative ways to pay for new antibiotics will help fight superbugs

    STAT | Although we’ve made great strides in the development of antibiotics since the discovery of penicillin in the early 20th century, we aren’t keeping up with the rise of superbugs — common bacteria that have acquired genes that make them resistant to most or all of our antibiotics. A commentary by Kevin Outterson.

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  • 03.30.2018  |  Super-gonorrhoea is here – that means the antibiotic crisis is too

    THE GUARDIAN | Highly drug-resistant bugs are no longer a future problem. After decades of complacency, urgency is needed. A commentary by Jeremy Knox

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  • 03.29.2018  |  Bug money

    BIOCENTURY | Despite tremendous public health need, venture investing in antibiotics remains modest and focused primarily on clinical assets seeking to improve on known classes of small moledcule antibiotics. But some initiatives including CARB-X are backing new mechanisms and preclinical assets that could address resistance for longer.

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  • 03.15.2018  |  New thinking is required to create desperately needed new antibiotics. We must act now.

    THE TELEGRAPH | A commentary by Dr. Tim Jinks, Wellcome Trust

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  • 03.02.2018  |  Countdown to the last antibiotic

    CHEMISTRY WORLD | The need for new antibiotics is urgent. Organizations like CARB-X are delivering solutions to the innovation challenge.

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  • 02.28.2018  |  Les antibiotiques, oubliés par l’industrie pharmaceutique (Antibiotics, forgotten by the pharmaceutical industry)

    RADIO CANADA | In recent years, major pharmaceutical companies have significantly reduced investments in antibiotic research. The result is an innovation gap and with the steadfast rise in drug resistance, an urgent global need for new antibiotics and other products to fight against drug-resistant bacterial infections. Organizations like CARB-X have stepped in to support innovative research into antibiotics and other products and are making progress.

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  • 02.25.2018  |  A new superbug requires urgent attention

    WASHINGTON POST | Typhoid fever is a major public-health menace in low- and middle-income countries it is often transmitted by contaminated water and causes an estimated 200,000 deaths a year

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  • 02.16.2018  |  Lung probe speeds detection of infections

    TECHNOLOGY NETWORKS | Early tests indicate the bedside technology developed by Proteus with help from CARB-X may be able to detect harmful bacteria in patients' lungs in less than 60 seconds.

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  • 02.15.2018  |  CARB-X announces first award of 2018, seeks partners for antibacterial research

    IP WATCH | CARB-X, the private-public partnership for research on antimicrobial resistance, today announced its first award of 2018, nearly $2 million for the development of a new class of antibiotics. Meanwhile, the group has announced it is seeking to partner with accelerator organisations to build its pipeline of early development research projects. It also announced a study that called for a new global approach and greater financial incentives for antibiotic research.

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  • 02.15.2018  |  Probe provides rapid lung investigation

    BBC | Proteus technology opens new doors for diagnosing serious drug resistant infections in the lungs.

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  • 02.14.2018  |  Antimicrobial resistance: Forging a new strategy against an old threat

    CONTAGION LIVE | CARB-X and other initiatives seek to infuse life into the research and development of new drugs.

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  • 02.06.2018  |  FDA cites progress, hurdles in antibiotic development

    CIDRAP | A new report from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lays out the progress that's been made in facilitating the development of new antibacterial drugs, but it says additional efforts are needed.

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