ABAC Therapeutics Announces €16 Million Series A to Develop Therapeutic Solutions to Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

MADRID and BARCELONA, Spain, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

ABAC Therapeutics (ABAC), a leader in pathogen-specific antibiotics, announced today the closing of a €16 million Series A round. The financing was led by Pontifax with participation from the Global Health Science Fund (jointly established by Quark Venture Inc. and GF Securities), Caixa Capital Risc, Debiopharm Innovation Fund and the existing investor Ferrer.

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ABAC is utilizing its proprietary discovery platform PasNas to identify novel pathogen-specific antibiotics designed to selectively kill multi-drug resistant bacteria. This approach allows the pursuit of novel modes of action while minimizing the impact on normal flora and the selection of resistant strains. The technology was originally developed by founders Albert Palomer and Domingo Gargallo-Viola.

ABAC's lead program targets multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, an increasingly fatal pathogen recently nominated by the World Health Organization as the most urgent bacterial threat for which new drugs are needed. The company intends to use the series A funds to advance its Acinetobacter program into the clinic and expand its pipeline of proprietary pathogen-specific antibiotics.

"As antibiotic resistance continues to grow, new therapeutic approaches are desperately needed," said Albert Palomer, CEO of ABAC. "Pathogen-specific antibiotics represent a novel approach for anti-infective drug development and have the potential to give rise to a completely new generation of antibiotics. We are excited to be one of the leaders in this field and are looking forward to working with the different stakeholders in order to unleash its disruptive potential."

"The time to incorporate precision medicine to the treatment of infectious diseases has arrived. The search for new target product profiles, together with the PasNas discovery platform, leads us to a new paradigm to treat infections, based on precision antibacterial agents," said Domingo Gargallo-Viola, CSO of ABAC.

Concurrent with the financing, ABAC also announced that Silvia Noiman (Pontifax), Zafrira Avnur (Quark Venture Inc. representing the Global Health Science Fund), Carlos Esteban (Caixa Capital Risc), Bea Arnold (Debiopharm Innovation Fund) and Olga Fidalgo (Ferrer) will join the board of directors alongside the founders of the company Albert Palomer and Domingo Gargallo-Viola.

About the Series A Investors 

The syndicate in ABAC's Series A financing is a well-balanced mix of experienced life science investment funds and strategic pharma partners.

• Pontifax is an Israel-based healthcare fund focused on investing in life science companies with exceptional science and entrepreneurs.
• Global Health Science Fund, established by Quark Venture and GF Securities in 2016, invests globally in a diversified portfolio of innovative biotechnology and health science companies who are addressing unmet medical needs.
• Caixa Capital Risc is the Barcelona-based venture arm of "la Caixa" investing in breakthrough biopharma technologies and products across multiple disease areas.
• Ferrer is one of Spain's largest private health sector companies with a proven commitment to driving research by investing in life science business opportunities.
• Debiopharm Innovation Fund, the strategic fund of Lausanne-based Debiopharm Group, invests in innovative technologies in healthcare and has outstanding expertise in the area of infectious diseases.

For further information, please visit http://www.abactherapeutics.com.

Contact (Berbés Asociados):

María Valerio / María González: +34-91-563-23-00
mariavalerio@berbes.com / mariagonzalez@berbes.com