Antabio, a start-up focused on developing drugs to prevent and treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, has exited what it believes is the first successful round of crowdfunding for a French biotech.

Through the French crowdfunding platform WiSEED, Antabio raised €300,000 (US$388,000) in less than three months in contributions from more than 200 small investors, enabling the company to achieve its goal of €1 million in seed financing.

The Labège, France-based company used the funding to complete proof-of-concept studies in its two discovery platforms and move its technology to a value point that would interest larger investors.

"The famous valley of death for entrepreneurs and start-up biotech companies is a real problem, and the economic climate is not helping," Marc Lemonnier, Antabio's founder and CEO, told BioWorld Today. "There was a need to find an alternative model to fund the very, very early stages of the development of our projects."

Although most of France's crowdfunding platforms were seeding artistic ventures, such as albums, WiSEED focuses on innovative business and technology start-ups.

The online platform accepts investments directly into selected companies, starting at just €100. And the Antabio and WiSEED management teams knew each other, since both organizations are based in the Toulouse area.

"We thought, 'Why not fund a biotech?'" Lemonnier recalled.

Antabio subsequently attracted an unnamed business angel with expertise in antibacterial drug discovery that acquired the crowdfunding holdings and enabled initial investors to exit at a "significant" profit, according to Lemonnier.

"It was a win-win deal for everyone," he said.

Successful advancement of the company's programs, in combination with the presence of the business angel, in turn, enticed an industry player to the table. Antabio is now finalizing a financing round with that company, which Lemonnier declined to name, for several million Euros. The new round will enable the company to move its programs into clinical development.

"It's a nice story for us," he said.

Established in 2009, Antabio also received seed financing from the bank BNP Paribas and grant funding from the French government's innovation agency OSEO.

Antabio, whose name is a play on the word antibiotics, is moving two complementary platforms forward on parallel tracks. The company is seeking to discover and develop first-in-class small-molecule compounds to treat severe nosocomial infections as well as community-acquired conditions, such as urinary tract infections. The novel anti-resistance compounds can be partnered with antibiotics, particularly carbapenems, to enhance activity against multi- or pan-drug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens such as Escherichia coli and the superbug New Delhi metalol-beta-lactamase (NDM-1).

The company expects to file an investigational new drug application and begin first-in-human studies of the NDM-1 inhibitors by the end of 2016, according to Lemonnier.

Antabio also owns an antivirulence technology to characterize compounds that can treat and prevent infections caused by virulent and multidrug-resistant bacteria – a platform that essentially "disarms" pathogenic bacteria. By blocking virulence, bacteria lose both their infectivity and their ability to defend themselves, Lemonnier pointed out, so infections can be cleared more efficiently by the immune system and by conventional antibacterial agents. The technology also potentially could prevent infections in at-risk patients – those undergoing catheterization, for instance – or help to mitigate a microbial terrorist attack.

Using a screening platform to isolate small antivirulence molecules, Antabio has identified a series of compounds and plans to characterize preclinical leads for testing in man.

Once its lead program moves into the clinic, Antabio will seek a Series B round to complete Phase II studies, according to Lemonnier.

The company has seven employees and plans to conduct "high-value recruitment" over the next 12 months as its programs move forward, he added.

"But we're a very focused company," Lemonnier said. "We have our core expertise in-house, and we outsource all of the other elements of drug development."

Although large pharmas have largely withdrawn from the antibiotics market, some biotechs continue to plow the space – and several have attracted pharma partners. Among the companies attacking superbugs like NDM-1, New Haven, Conn.-based Rib-X Pharmaceuticals Inc. is working on RX-04, aimed at drug-resistant Gram-negative organisms. Last year, the biotech inked a potential $760 million worldwide research collaboration and licensing option with Sanofi SA, of Paris, for antibiotics resulting from the RX-04 program for the treatment of resistant Gram-positive and resistant Gram-negative pathogens. (See BioWorld Today, July 7, 2011.)

Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., recently reported Phase II data on eravacycline (TP-434), a fully synthetic tetracycline antibiotic developed from its tetracycline chemistry platform, demonstrating significant activity against drug-resistant bacterial pathogens. In February, the company landed a $67 million BARDA contract for the broad-spectrum antibiotic. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 17, 2012.)

Meanwhile, South San Francisco-based Achaogen Inc. also has BARDA funding for ACHN-490, which has shown efficacy against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, and Lexington, Mass.-based Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. has the broad-spectrum antibiotic CXA-101.

Like competitors, Antabio's science addresses an urgent unmet medical need, Lemonnier said. A differentiator is that "we move fast," he added. "Not only were we able to fund the company in a novel way, but we also have a very solid business plan. That makes us attractive to large pharmaceutical companies."