WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Macrolide Pharmaceuticals, a next-generation antibiotics company developing macrolides that are first-in-class with Gram-negative activity for a broad range of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, today announced that Mahesh Karande has joined the company as President and CEO. The company is also pleased to announce the completion of a $20 million financing led by current investors Advent Life Sciences, Gurnet Point Capital, Novartis Venture Fund, Roche Ventures and SR One.
“This latest financing represents strong confidence from our investors in the path-breaking approach we are taking to address unmet needs in the antibiotic landscape. This positions Macrolide to further the pioneering work the team has done to date in advancing new macrolide antibiotics with Gram-negative activity,” said Mr. Karande. “We believe that advancing first-in-class antibiotics that are active against lethal multi-drug resistant bacteria opens the door to a new and meaningful way to address the growing public health issue of treatment gaps due to antibiotic resistance.”
Mr. Karande has held increasing responsibilities at Novartis AG where he ran large businesses in the US and internationally. He served as Vice President and U.S. Oncology Business Head for Breast and Renal Solid Tumors, President and Pharma Head for Africa and Egypt, and Head of Strategy and Business Development for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. He has deep and broad global experiences in operations, strategy, policy, licensing and partnering. He joins Macrolide from Intarcia Therapeutics where he served as Vice President and General Manager.
“We are excited to have Mahesh join the team at Macrolide Pharmaceuticals and bring his considerable experience in leadership, business-building, policy and strategy to the company at this important juncture,” said Henry Skinner, Chairman of the Board.
The new funding from both the financing and previously announced CARB-X award will accelerate development of the company’s novel, IV and orally available macrolide antibiotics to address serious infections, including work to support filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its lead program that addresses a significant unmet clinical need for antibiotics to treat infections caused by resistant Gram-negative pathogens. The company is broadly pursuing novel macrolide antibiotics for several illnesses caused by Gram-negative pathogens for which a critical unmet clinical need exists.
About Macrolide Pharmaceuticals
Macrolide Pharmaceuticals is
a next-generation antibiotics company developing macrolides that are
first-in-class with Gram-negative activity and will have broad
applicability across multiple resistant infectious diseases. The company
was founded in 2015 with a fully-synthetic technology platform licensed
from Harvard University. The platform is a groundbreaking technological
advance that holds the foundational key to discover and create new
macrolides from basic chemical building blocks that transform this class
from its traditional Gram-positive spectrum to include multi-drug
resistant (MDR) Gram-negative pathogens. Macrolide is supported and
advised by world-class investors, partners, Board members, scientific
advisors and funding organizations. Its lead program aims to address MDR
infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens.
Macrolide is headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit the Macrolide website at www.macrolide.com.
