MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Venatorx Pharmaceuticals today announced that it joined the Alliance for Biosecurity, a coalition of biopharmaceutical companies – along with laboratory and academic partners – that promotes a strong public-private partnership in order to ensure the medical countermeasures that protect public health are effective and readily available.
“We welcome Venatorx Pharmaceuticals to the Alliance,” said Alliance for Biosecurity Co-Chair, Brent MacGregor. “Our 18 member companies, including Venatorx, provide a wide array of expertise and perspectives that contribute to our expanding scope. Together, we are uniquely equipped to help guide and further develop public-private partnerships that protect the American people from chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threats.”
The Alliance for Biosecurity supports national health security by advocating for public policies and funding to support the rapid development, production, stockpiling, and distribution of critically needed medical countermeasures that are used to prevent and respond to a variety of threats.
“Antibiotics represent a critical component to effectively respond to public health emergencies involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) threats. Venatorx is developing antibiotic candidates that have the potential to effectively treat a number of bacterial bioterrorism pathogens, and possibly prevent opportunistic infections in patients who have been exposed to radiation or who require prolonged hospitalization,” said Joseph C. Larsen, Ph.D., Vice President, Strategic Portfolio Development at Venatorx. “Our partnership with the Alliance for Biosecurity is part of our overall strategy to overcome the market challenges facing antibiotic development by pursuing conventional and public health emergency preparedness applications for our development-stage and discovery-stage products.”
“Because the U.S. government creates the demand for these products by authorizing funding for procurement and development, it benefits both sides to have clarity of requirements so industry can adequately meet the government's needs,” said Alliance for Biosecurity Co-Chair, Chris Frech. “In the interest of preparedness and national security, it is imperative that industry and government work together to ensure that the necessary countermeasures are developed, manufactured, and delivered to the strategic national stockpile or that the infrastructure exists to respond to such emergencies. For the Alliance to represent industry accurately in these situations, it is important that we have well-rounded knowledge to bring to these public-private partnerships. Our new members help give us a vast scope of expertise behind the same singular focus: strong and resilient national health security.”
About Venatorx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Venatorx Pharmaceuticals is a private pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel anti-infectives to treat multi-drug-resistant (MDR) 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.
Venatorx’s most advanced development-stage product is taniborbactam (formerly VNRX-5133), an injectable beta-lactamase inhibitor (BLI) that features selective and potent in vitro activity against both serine- and metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs), including ESBL, OXA, KPC, NDM, and VIM enzymes. Venatorx believes that taniborbactam, 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 needs 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 bioterror pathogens such as Burkholderia spp. Venatorx initiated enrollment in its Phase 3 trial of cefepime-taniborbactam in patients with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) in August 2019 and expects top-line results by the end of 2020. 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.
