Entasis Announces Partnership With CARB-X To Support Development Of Oral, Gram-Negative Program

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Entasis Therapeutics Inc., a company focused on the discovery and development of breakthrough anti-infective products, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with CARB-X to receive up to $6.3MM to develop its preclinical oral, Gram-negative program through Phase 1 clinical development. Entasis is also participating in the Powered by CARB-X special event at the PEW Charitable Trusts in Washington D.C., March 30, 2017.

“Our agent has the potential to address this unmet need by providing physicians with a new outpatient treatment option.”

CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Accelerator) was launched in August 2016 to accelerate pre-clinical product development in the area of antibiotic-resistant infections, one of the world’s greatest health threats. CARB-X was established by BARDA and NIAID of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services along with Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. This partnership has committed $450 million in new funds over the next five years to increase the number of antibacterial products in the drug-development pipeline. It reflects a new approach to how antibacterial research and drug development is identified, funded and accelerated to the clinic.

“We feel privileged to be working with CARB-X to bring our oral, Gram-negative program to the clinic. This partnership will provide key resources to accelerate development of our program, helping us fulfill our commitment of bringing innovative cures to patients suffering from serious bacterial infections,” said Manos Perros, CEO of Entasis. “The Entasis research team has done an incredible job on this latest program making it the third, along with our two other programs already in clinical trials, to originate from our innovative discovery platform. To see that work recognized by CARB-X makes all of us at Entasis extremely proud.”

Entasis’ oral, Gram-negative agent is currently in preclinical development. It has demonstrated potent activity against multi-drug resistant (MDR) Enterobacteriaceae, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Currently many patients with infections due to MDR Enterobacteriaceae require hospitalization for intravenous therapy because antimicrobial resistance has rendered all available oral therapies ineffective. Thus, many physicians identify the lack of a potent, oral Gram-negative agent as one of the largest unmet medical needs in the infection space today.

“The lack of orally available treatment options for drug-resistant Gram-negative infections creates a significant and urgent medical need. Too many patients are admitted to the hospital for treatment with IV drugs, increasing the cost of care and contributing to the spread of drug-resistant infections,” said John Mueller, Chief Development Officer of Entasis and Principal Investigator for the Entasis/CARB-X partnership. “Our agent has the potential to address this unmet need by providing physicians with a new outpatient treatment option.”

About Entasis Therapeutics Inc.
Entasis Therapeutics is developing a portfolio of innovative cures for serious drug-resistant bacterial infections, a global health crisis affecting the lives of millions of patients. Entasis’ anti-infective discovery platform has produced a pipeline of meaningfully differentiated programs which target serious bacterial infections, including ETX2514SUL (targeting infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii infections) and zoliflodacin (targeting the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections) currently in the clinic. www.entasistx.com

About CARB-X
CARB-X is the world’s largest public-private partnership devoted to antibacterial preclinical R&D. Funded by BARDA and Wellcome Trust, with in-kind support from NIAID, we will spend $450 million from 2017-2021 to support innovative products moving towards human clinical trials. CARB-X focuses on high priority drug-resistant bacteria, especially Gram-negatives. CARB-X is a charitable global public-private partnership led by Boston University School of Law. Other partners include the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, MassBio, the California Life Sciences Institute and RTI International. For more information, please visit www.carb-x.org and follow us on Twitter @CARB_X.