A new antibiotic combination developed by Venatorx Pharmaceuticals Inc. "may represent a significant improvement over the standard of care" for adults with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI), said Christopher Burns, the company's co-founder, president and CEO.

Royal Philips NV expanded its commitment to increasing awareness of cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CEID) infections with a new partnership with the American Heart Association (AHA). The organizations are rolling out a program to educate medical professionals on the proper management of these infections which are commonly treated with antibiotics, an approach that leads to reinfection in the majority of cases.

The world’s largest genomics study in patients with life-threatening COVID-19 infections has uncovered 16 new genetic variants associated with severe disease and drawn up a roadmap for research into new therapies and diagnostics. The research involved comparing the complete genome sequences of 7,491 patients admitted to 224 intensive care units in the U.K. against those of 48,400 participants in Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes project, and of a further 1,630 people who had mild COVID-19. While some of the gene variants found in the Genomicc study affect the function of a protein, others influence the amount of the protein that is expressed. An example is mucin-1, where overexpression led to worse outcomes.

To counter the worldwide growth of antimicrobial resistance, a subject of worldwide concern but little actual progress, Arrepath Inc. has raised a $20 million seed financing to advance its machine learning-based platform for discovering new classes of anti-infectives.