MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals today announced that it was named one of the “2019 Best Places to Work” in the Greater Philadelphia area by the Philadelphia Business Journal.
The Philadelphia Business Journal, in partnership with Quantum Workplace, honors companies based on a scoring benchmark which reflects employee response rates as well as employee rankings of work environment, people, personal growth, and professional development. The year 2019 yielded a record number of applications for the Best Places to Work and every company included had to reach a scoring benchmark.
“We are grateful to our amazing team of scientists and visionaries who consistently bring their ‘best self’ to work every day,” said Christopher J. Burns, Ph.D., President and CEO of VenatoRx. “Innovation is at the heart of our mission and our people are our greatest asset. We strive to empower our team through trust, loyalty and transparency to provide the tools they need to successfully fulfill their roles and responsibilities and perform at the highest levels. Everyone is valued at VenatoRx and has a significant role to play in the future success of our organization.”
“VenatoRx provides a dynamic and challenging work environment,” said Ashley Ivanowicz, Head of Human Resources at VenatoRx. “Management leads by example, providing a forum to innovate and inspire, and setting a tone of integrity, openness, and communication that permeates throughout the organization. We have clear goals and targets for our programs and our whole team works together to achieve those goals. We are building a culture where everyone's expertise, training and opinions are welcomed, solicited and respected. Our employees are hardworking, passionate and fun to work with — a testament to VenatoRx being named one of the ‘Best Places to Work’ for the second year in a row.”
Headquartered in the Philadelphia suburbs of Malvern, Pennsylvania, VenatoRx has nearly doubled its headcount over the past year and is actively seeking motivated, passionate and entrepreneurial-minded professionals for open positions in Quality Assurance, Operations, Discovery, and Development to support its aggressive strategic growth plan.
About VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
VenatoRx is a private pharmaceutical company that is focused on the discovery and development of novel anti-infectives to treat multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections and hard-to-treat viral infections. Founded in 2010, VenatoRx has built a world-class in-house R&D organization that has filed over 100 patents spanning multiple research programs. VenatoRx has received significant funding awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); Wellcome Trust; the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS); the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA); and CARB-X, and as well as private equity investments from Versant Ventures, Abingworth and Foresite Capital.
The Company’s most advanced development-stage product is VNRX-5133, an injectable beta-lactamase inhibitor (BLI) that features selective and potent in vitro activity against both serine- and metallo-beta-lactamases, including ESBL, OXA, KPC, NDM, and VIM enzymes. VenatoRx believes that VNRX-5133, in a fixed combination with the fourth generation cephalosporin, cefepime, has the potential to provide a valuable broad-spectrum treatment option to meet unmet medical need in patients with infections due to carbapenem-resistant pathogens including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA), suspected polymicrobial infections caused by both gram-negative and gram-positive susceptible pathogens, and engineerable MDR bioterror pathogens such as Burkholderia spp. and Salmonella spp. Early clinical studies of cefepime/VNRX-5133 have been completed and VenatoRx intends to initiate Phase 3 pivotal trials during the third quarter 2019. This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN272201300019C, The Wellcome Trust under Award No. 360G-Wellcome-101999/Z/13/Z, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Department of Health and Human Services under Contract No. HHSO100201900007C.
VenatoRx’s second development-stage product in clinical development is VNRX-7145, an orally bioavailable BLI that in a fixed combination with the third generation orally bioavailable cephalosporin, ceftibuten, has the potential to rescue activity of the partner antibiotic against ESBLs and key carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, including those expressing KPC and OXA carbapenemases. This project has been funded in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN272201600029C.
Additionally, VenatoRx has a broad pipeline of preclinical programs including a novel class of Penicillin-Binding Protein (PBP) inhibitors that are impervious to beta-lactamase-driven resistance, and novel antiviral agents targeting Hepatitis B Virus. For more information, please visit www.venatorx.com.
