ANTABIO Announces Key Executive Appointments

Antabio SAS, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibacterial treatments in areas of highest unmet needs, is pleased to announce the addition of four highly successful and accomplished biotech executives to the management team.

These appointments come soon after the first closing of Antabio’s Series A financing round and notification that Antabio has been selected as one of 18 out of 368 international candidates for a CARB-X subsidy award of up to $8,9 million.

Starting January 1st 2018 and on a part-time basis, Gordon Waldron will lead Finance, Carole Sable will oversee Clinical Strategy, Helmuth van Es will direct Business Development and David Lathbury will manage CMC activities.

These executives have built strong track records directing and growing innovative biotech companies, forging alliances, maximizing shareholder value and taking products through pre-clinical and clinical development to market. Gordon Waldron and Carole Sable have previously worked together at Novexel (as CFO and CMO, respectively) where they held leadership roles in the financing and development of a novel anti-infective pipeline prior to concluding the successful sale of Novexel in 2010.  Helmuth van Es was a founder of Galapagos which has become one of the leading biotech companies in Europe with a market capitalization of €4 billion. David Lathbury was previously Director of Process Chemistry at AstraZeneca and VP of Chemical Development at AMRI.

Antabio’s lead molecule is now in preclinical development and is expected to enter the clinic in early 2019 with fast track to potential market approval by 2023. This programme aims to develop a metallo beta-lactamase inhibitor (“MBLI”) combined with meropenem to treat infections caused by WHO’s priority pathogens in order to address a critical unmet need and fill an important gap in the antibiotic armamentarium.  The incidence of metallo beta-lactamase resistance is rising sharply in many areas of the world and in particular in China.

Antabio’s second programme targets chronic Pseudomonas infections. This programme has recently earned support from the global CARB-X initiative with up to $8.9M non-dilutive funding and free access to NIH preclinical services up to completion of Phase 1.

The company is in the process of seeking further pipeline expansion through external opportunities and additional funds to accelerate development.

Carole Sable commented: “It is exciting to have the opportunity to work on the development of Antabio’s MBLi which addresses a significant unmet need.  NDM-1 has been spreading globally since first identified in India in 2008.  Effective therapies are extremely limited and beta-lactamase inhibitors are a proven strategy to address Gram-negative resistance.”

Marc Lemonnier, Antabio CEO commented “We are thrilled to have attracted such high caliber talent. These new additions, along with the expertise already in house through Martin Everett (CSO), Magdalena Zalacain (head of preclinical development) and David Davies (head of chemistry), give Antabio the broad skill sets and high quality international leadership team needed as we embark on the next phase of our growth and move our antibacterial resistance pipeline towards the clinic”.

About ANTABIO
Antabio is a private biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibacterial resistance-breakers to treat drug-resistant infections in areas of highest unmet medical need. Two of Antabio’s programmes have received Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Awards to date: (i) a novel, safe and efficacious inhibitor of bacterial metallo ß-lactamases to be combined with a carbapenem for the treatment of drug-resistant nosocomial infections and (ii) a first-in-class inhibitor of Pseudomonas virulence to be co-administered with standard-of-care antibiotics for the long-term management of chronic respiratory infections. The company’s lead product is expected to enter the clinic in 2019 with a fast track to anticipated marketing approval by 2023. Antabio has built a best in class, international team of experts in the field to progress its pipeline up to the next value inflection point. The Company is also looking to in-license additional assets focused on Gram-negative antibiotic resistant therapies.

Contact
Carine Bonnet-Danaire
press@antabio.com