VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals Joins Antimicrobials Working Group

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The Antimicrobials Working Group (AWG) announced today the addition of VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to its coalition of companies with the mission to combat drug resistant infections and spur life-saving innovations. This new addition brings AWG’s membership to 15 antimicrobial drug companies.

VenatoRx is a world leader in antibacterial and antiviral drug research and development. The Company’s lead product, VNRX-5133, is an injectable broad-spectrum beta-lactamase inhibitor (BLI) that features uniquely potent and selective activity against both serine- and metallo-beta lactamases. VenatoRx believes that VNRX-5133, in a fixed combination with the fourth generation cephalosporin, cefepime, has the potential to provide a best-in-class broad-spectrum treatment option for infections due to carbapenem resistant pathogens including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA), bioterror pathogens such as Burkholderia spp. and Salmonella spp. engineerable with serine- and metallo-beta-lactamases, and suspected polymicrobial infections caused by both gram-negative and gram-positive pathogens.

“VenatoRx’s dedication to the discovery and development of new medicines to treat drug resistant infections has been recognized with funding awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Wellcome Trust, CARB-X, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) as well as private equity investments from Versant Ventures, Abingworth, and Foresite Capital,” said Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Cidara Therapeutics and Chairman of AWG. “We are happy to have VenatoRx join AWG and believe their commitment to solving the global health problems created by the spread of drug resistant infections will be a great benefit to our coalition’s efforts to improve the landscape for emerging infectious disease companies.”

“The antibiotics industry is experiencing significant commercial and reimbursement headwinds that are collectively driving down valuations and discouraging big pharmaceutical companies from investing in the sector,” said Christopher J. Burns, Ph.D., Founder, President and CEO of VenatoRx. “It’s critical to have an organization like AWG that can assemble a coalition of companies in the space in order to communicate like-minded goals: the improvement of the overall environment for antimicrobial drug and diagnostic development in order to provide physicians and their patients best-in-class, innovative infectious disease treatment options. We look forward to partnering with AWG and its member companies to affect change and facilitate a win-win environment for all stakeholders in the fight against resistant bacteria.”

All pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing new antimicrobial therapeutics and diagnostic devices are eligible for consideration of membership in AWG. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a member of AWG, please contact us here.

About VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

VenatoRx is a private pharmaceutical company that is focused on the discovery and development of novel anti-infectives to treat multi-drug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections and hard-to-treat viral infections. VenatoRx’s lead product, VNRX-5133, is an injectable broad-spectrum beta-lactamase inhibitor (BLI) that directly inhibits all four Ambler classes of beta-lactamases. In addition, VenatoRx has a broad pipeline of preclinical programs, including a broad-spectrum orally bioavailable BLI, a novel class of Penicillin-Binding Protein (PBP) inhibitors that are impervious to beta-lactamase-driven resistance, and novel antiviral agents.

For more information, please visit www.venatorx.com.

About The Antimicrobials Working Group

AWG was founded in 2012 with the vision of utilizing collective power to improve the regulatory, investment, and commercial environment for emerging infectious disease companies. Today, AWG is comprised of fifteen antimicrobials companies: Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Aridis Pharmaceuticals, Cidara Therapeutics Inc., ContraFect Corporation, Entasis Therapeutics Inc., Iterum Therapeutics Ltd., Melinta Therapeutics Inc., Motif Bio PLC, Nabriva Therapeutics US Inc., Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc., Qpex Biopharma, Inc., SCYNEXIS Inc., Spero Therapeutics, Inc., Summit Therapeutics plc, and VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

For more information, visit: www.antimicrobialsworkinggroup.org

About The Conafay Group

The Conafay Group, led by Stephen R. Conafay, Principal, is a life-sciences government relations firm based in Washington D.C. that serves as Washington counsel and coalition manager for AWG.

For more information, visit: www.conafaygroup.com

SOURCE Antimicrobials Working Group (AWG)

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Michael N. Dudley, Pharm.D.

President and Chief Executive Officer
Qpex Biopharma, Inc.

Dr. Dudley has over 30 years of experience in antiinfective drug research, development, and commercialization. In 2018, he co-founded Qpex Biopharma which raised $33M in Series A financing and acquired the preclinical infectious disease programs from The Medicines Company. He has overseen the development and regulatory approval of 3 antibiotics, most recently a beta-lactamase inhibitor combination product from a new chemical class (vaborbactam) discovered in the company laboratories. The antibiotic product Vabomere™ advanced from discovery to FDA approval in 2017 in less than 8 years. He lead the negotiation for multiple contracts from public-private partnerships (e.g., BARDA of the US Government; Innovative Medicines Initiative for the EU) for a combined total of over $190 million funding to advance antimicrobial agents in development in the US and Europe. Prior to co-founding Qpex, he was Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Rempex Pharmaceuticals that was acquired by the Medicines Company (MDCO) in 2013, where he remained as the co-leader of the Infectious Disease Business Unit of MDCO. Prior to Rempex, he held VP/SVP/CSO positions of increasing responsibility at the biotech companies Mpex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Aptalis in 2011), Diversa Corporation, and Microcide Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his career in pharmaceutical industry, he held full-time academic appointments that included Professor of Pharmacy and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy (URI), and Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine at Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, RI. As an academic researcher, he conducted preclinical and clinical research in antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral agents, including pioneering work on PK-PD approaches for several classes of antiinfectives. Dr. Dudley has published over 130 scientific papers and book chapters describing the evaluation and clinical use of antiinfective agents and treatment of infectious diseases. He has served as an invited speaker at several FDA and EMA workshops, international meetings on infectious diseases, and advisor to several companies. He has served as an Editor for the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and numerous other editorial and advisory boards. He completed undergraduate work at Pepperdine University and his Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), completed at residency at UCSF, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Hartford Hospital.

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