Shanx Medtech BV raised €15 million (US$17.5 million) in a seed funding round for its in vitro diagnostic platform for ultra-rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The financing came from a range of sources including equity, grants and a loan, and will be used to accelerate the development, clinical validation, regulatory approval, and commercial launch of the diagnostic platform.
The EU finally reached agreement on an update of the 20-year-old pharmaceutical legislation, more than five years after the EU Commission first put forward the case for reform and following two and a half years of negotiations on the new rules.
Scynexis Inc. has announced that a novel series of antifungal compounds utilizing its proprietary triterpenoid antifungal platform are among five projects funded by a federal grant awarded to the new accelerator consortium led by researchers from Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
GSK plc and the Fleming Initiative have announced six major new research programs to find new ways to slow the progress of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Fleming Initiative is a collaboration established by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to help tackle AMR. Each of the new programs will begin by early next year and are fully funded for 3 years.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc and Biomérieux SA launched Ampore-TB, a research use only test that can rapidly detect mutations linked to antimicrobial resistance in tuberculosis. With multidrug-resistant TB affecting an estimated 400,000 people annually and increasing risks of morbidity and mortality, this assay could help with earlier diagnosis of drug resistance in patients.
One in six common bacterial infections diagnosed worldwide in 2023 were resistant to treatment with antibiotics, according to the latest surveillance data gathered by the World Health Organization (WHO). Drug-resistant gram-negative bacteria that cause bloodstream infections that can lead to sepsis, organ failure and death are an increasing threat globally.
Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) has awarded Baxiva AG $3 million to develop its multivalent glycoconjugate vaccine.
Bacteria also defend themselves against pathogen attacks using mechanisms like those of the immune system. But if there is a system to repel an attack, it can also be dismantled. Scientists at the University of Southampton have described the components of Kiwa, a protein complex that blocks the entry of phage DNA, which are viruses that infect bacteria. They have also uncovered how Kiwa interacts with other bacterial defense strategies.
The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued its first official guidance on how to develop bacteriophages as licensed medicinal products. This covers personalized phage therapies designed for specific patients – at present the only form in which they are available – but also is relevant to the development of off-the-shelf products for treating common infections.
Biomérieux SA recently received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its Vitek Compact Pro, a system for microorganism identification and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing. The company hopes that the system will help clinical laboratories combat antimicrobial resistance and diagnose infectious diseases as well as support industrial laboratories in identifying contaminants to ensure consumer safety.
