RTI International will provide technical and regulatory support services for a new biotech accelerator program aiming to boost development of treatments that target antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Eleven companies, none of which are located in North Carolina, were awarded $24 million with another $24 million available through possible milestone payments in the first selections made by the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, or CARB-X. At least $250 million is committed to the program.
RTI is part of a consortium that aims to reduce some 700,000 deaths a year worldwide due to drug-resistant infections.
The CARB-X mission: “To protect humanity from the most serious bacterial threats by accelerating antibacterial product development over the next 25 years.”
RTI also will build and run the computing systems that will identify, track and monitor research being done in CARB-X programs.
- VIDEO: Learn more about CARB-X at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8SH2lzQO0g
Early treatments chosen for funding include three “small molecule” antibiotics and what CARB-X describes as “four innovative, non-traditional products that could offer alternate approaches to targeting and killing bacteria.”
“Along with the whole CARB-X team, we are strongly committed to combatting the deadly and growing threat of antibiotic-resistant infections,” said Doris Rouse, vice president, global health technologies at RTI.
“We are excited to be a partner in the innovative CARB-X initiative by building elements of the CARB-X systems infrastructure and assisting the CARB-X funded companies with the design and development of their programs and interactions with FDA.”
Funding comes from Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is part of the US HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness, along with the Wellcome Trust and AMR Centre, a new UK-based funder of biomedical research and accelerator.
Read more about the first portfolio picks at:
http://www.carb-x.org/portfolio
