GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (APT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of phage-based therapies to combat bacterial infections, announced today that it has received a $12 million upfront investment from funds managed by Deerfield Management and the AMR Action Fund as part of a new $24 million total investment in a Series B1 round that is targeting $30 million in aggregate.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health concern, and this investment enables continuing clinical progression of APT’s pipeline of phage therapies to combat AMR infections. APT’s platform utilizes bacteriophages, or viruses that specifically target and kill bacteria, to create personalized treatments for patients with difficult-to-treat infections.
"We are thrilled to have the ongoing support of Deerfield and the AMR Action Fund as we work to address the urgent need for new treatments to combat antibiotic resistance," said Greg Merril, co-Founder and CEO of APT. "This investment will allow us to advance our lead clinical programs related to musculoskeletal infections, including prosthetic joint infections and diabetic foot osteomyelitis."
Concurrent with the investment, APT is expanding its Board of Directors to include Ian Hardy, PhD, MBA, Vice President of Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC), Deerfield Discovery and Development at Deerfield Management. Dr. Hardy will serve as APT’s Board Chair. With over 30 years of experience in large pharmaceutical and biotech companies, covering a broad range of development programs from discovery through commercialization, Dr. Hardy brings a wealth of expertise to the APT team.
"I am excited to join the Board of Directors at APT and help advance their innovative phage therapy platform," said Ian Hardy. "APT has the potential to make a significant impact in the fight against antibiotic resistance, and I look forward to working with the team to make these therapies broadly available to patients."
About Adaptive Phage Therapeutics
Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (APT) is a clinical-stage company advancing therapies to treat multi-drug resistant infections. Traditional antibiotic approaches lose effectiveness over time due to bacteria’s inherent ability to evolve resistance. APT’s approach uniquely leverages an ever-growing library of systematically discovered, selected, catalogued, and curated bacteriophages (phages), which collectively provide broad coverage against many of the world’s highest priority antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Phages from APT phage bank are matched to treat patient’s infections through a proprietary susceptibility assay that APT has teamed with Mayo Clinic Laboratories to commercialize on a global scale.
APT’s technology was originally developed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by APT co-founder Carl R. Merril, MD CAPT USPHS (ret) and further advanced within a biodefense program of U.S. Department of Defense. APT acquired the world-wide exclusive commercial rights in 2017. Under FDA emergency Investigational New Drug allowance, APT has provided investigational therapy to treat numerous critically ill patients in which standard-of-care antibiotics had failed. For more information, visit http://www.aphage.com.
About AMR Action Fund
The AMR Action Fund is the world’s largest public-private partnership investing in antibiotics, antifungals, and other antimicrobial treatments. The Fund will invest US$1 billion into clinical-stage biotech companies with the goal of bringing two to four new products to market. The concept of the AMR Action Fund was developed by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations and its member biopharmaceutical companies, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the European Investment Bank, and the Wellcome Trust. Investors in the AMR Action Fund include: Almirall; Amgen; Bayer; Boehringer Ingelheim; Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation; Chugai; Daiichi-Sankyo; Eisai; Eli Lilly and Company; the European Investment Bank (with the support of the European Commission under Horizon 2020, the 2014-2020 European Union research and innovation program); GlaxoSmithKline; Johnson & Johnson; LEO Pharma; Lundbeck; Menarini; Merck; Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany; Novartis; Novo Nordisk; Novo Nordisk Foundation; Pfizer; Roche; Shionogi; Takeda; Teva; UCB; and the Wellcome Trust.