Venatorx Pharmaceuticals Raises Series C Financing

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Venatorx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Malvern, PA-based private, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on improving health outcomes for patients with multidrug-resistant bacterial infections and hard-to-treat viral infections, sold shares of its Series C Preferred Stock in a financing of undisclosed amount.

The round was led by the AMR Action Fund with participation from existing investors including Abingworth.

Led by Christopher J. Burns, Ph.D., President and CEO, Venatorx is a private, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on improving health outcomes for patients with multidrug-resistant bacterial infections and hard-to-treat viral infections. Its lead program, cefepime-taniborbactam, is a clinical-stage antibiotic that recently completed a Phase 3 study (CERTAIN-1) in adults with complicated urinary tract infections. In this study, cefepime-taniborbactam met the primary noninferiority efficacy endpoint at Test-of-Cure visit and demonstrated statistical superiority to the comparator, meropenem. In addition, cefepime-taniborbactam was well-tolerated with a similar safety profile to meropenem. Based on positive results from the CERTAIN-1 clinical trial, Venatorx expects to submit a New Drug Application to the FDA for cefepime-taniborbactam in the fourth quarter 2022. Venatorx is also advancing an oral antibacterial clinical-stage program, ceftibuten/VNRX-7145.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to support the company as it advances its novel antibacterial portfolio through the drug development process, including a New Drug Application (NDA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cefepime-taniborbactam for the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI) in adult patients; continued advancement of cefepime-taniborbactam for patients with hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (HABP/VABP); and further development of the Venatorx’s oral antibiotic, ceftibuten/VNRX-7145.

To date, in addition to equity financings, Venatorx has also received significant funding awards from: the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the Wellcome Trust; the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS); the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA); as well as CARB-X. Venatorx also has license and/or collaboration agreements with Everest Medicines, Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), and Roche.

FinSMEs

04/04/2022