Small Harvard start-up starts a big problem of antimicrobial resistance

In view of the growing resistance to common antibiotics all over the world, North Carolina Biotech Kinvard Bio launched On Monday with the task of developing the next generation medication that can fight rising “super bugs”.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the world's leading concerns about the public health of the World Health Organization. Law almost 5 million human lives per year. If this number is not checked, according to a study, this number could be on 10 million balloon balloon in July 2023 to 2050 to 2050 Plos medicine. According to WHO estimates, AMR will probably cost around 100 trillion dollars by 2050.

In order to combat AMR, Kinvard develops what it calls Oxepanoprolinamides (OPPS), a technology from research carried out by the founders of the start-up of the Harvard department for chemistry and chemical biology. OPPs form a new and independent class of Lincosamide antibiotics that can bind strongly and specifically to bacterial ribosome.

Preclinical studies that were carried out in Harvard indicate the potential of OPPS to show strong activity against both gram -positive and gram -negative bacteria. Kinvard has already licensed the OPP technology by Harvard and opened the way to clinical application.

With his start on Monday, Kinvard joins the very small group of Biopharma players who address AMR. Although it is an urgent problem in public health, AMR is remains unattractive for the industry– Especially with his biggest players – due to a shaky path to profitability.

Only a few companies remain in this area and even then their assets are usually not high on their priority lists. Among these players are Eli Lilly, who in July 2024 partner With Openaai to develop new agents against resistant pathogens, and GSK, which in April this year achieved a phase -iii victory against certain gonorrhea tribes that have become resistant to existing therapies.

In an interview with Biospace In July 2024, John Stanford, Executive Director at Incubate, an organization of Life Sciences Investors, described the situation as a “classic example of market failure”, which invests in the “little to no incentive to AMR against other promising therapeutics”.

Kinvard will first concentrate on the preclinical optimization of his OPP program, for which it wants to develop both oral and intravenous formulations. The start-up will prioritize “the most demanding acute and chronic” infections such as bacterial pneumonia, complicated urinary tract infections and non-tuberculosis-mycobacteria-related diseases.

The start of Kinvard on Monday was supported by the risk sciences of venture investment in Kineticos, while a large part of the scientific foundations carried out in Harvard was supported by the biomedical accelerator from Blavatnik and the well-known antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The press announcement on Monday did not state how much Kinvard received seed financing, even though the team received $ 1.2 million.