BioVersys Announces CHF 19 Million Financing to Advance Novel AMR Candidates into Clinical Development

BASEL, Switzerland, September 01, 2020 / B3C newswire / -- BioVersys announces the successful completion of a CHF 19 million Series B financing round to advance its two lead assets of infectious disease candidates into first in human clinical trials and has also strengthened its board with the appointment of Dr. Eduard Holdener.

BioVersys AG, a privately owned, multi-asset Swiss pharmaceutical company focuses on developing small molecules for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections with applications in Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and targeted microbiome modulation. AMR is one of the greatest global healthcare threats and unmet medical need, already killing more than 750,000 people every year and potentially 10 million people annually by 2050 in the absence of novel life-saving treatments.

This CHF 19 million Series B financing is a significant achievement in the field of AMR and will enable BioVersys to further develop its unique AMR-fighting pipeline with two lead candidates poised to enter into clinical Phase 1 this year.

• BV100 is a potential breakthrough hospital antibiotic to treat serious infections caused by carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in indications of ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (VABP), hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia (HABP) and bloodstream infections (BSI), for which there are little to no effective and safe treatment options. BV100 has shown outstanding in vitro and in vivo efficacy in several animal models, with unprecedented in vitro strain coverage against CRAB and a very low propensity to develop resistance.
• BVL-GSK098 is a novel compound potentiating and overcoming the resistance against Ethionamide (Eto) for the treatment of tuberculosis. BVL-GSK098 targets bacterial transcriptional regulators, a groundbreaking approach that will be assessed globally for the first time in clinical trials. BVL-GSK098 is developed in combination with Eto for the treatment of tuberculosis in collaboration with GSK. The program is supported by the IMI2 AMR Accelerator from the EU.

This Series B complements the CHF 16.5 million of non-dilutive funding raised in 2019 from CARB-X and the IMI2-JU/European Union.

With the appointment of Dr. Ed Holdener to the board, BioVersys brings additional clinical development experience to the company. Dr. Holdener is currently serving on the board of HBM Healthcare Investments and was previously Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at Novimmune S.A. which was sold in July 2019. Prior to Novimmune, Dr. Holdener was Head of Global Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer at F. Hoffmann-La Roche. 

Dr. Marc Gitzinger, CEO and co-founder of BioVersys: “As the world struggles with the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the threat of the next pandemic is already on our doorstep in the form of AMR. The mission of BioVersys to bring life-saving novel antibiotics to patients suffering from drug-resistant infections is critical for the survival and viability of global healthcare systems. With this significant financing round, we take the next important steps of progressing to clinical development and eventually delivering these urgently needed medicines to patients. I want to thank our shareholders for their trust and faith in the management team, our mission and the vision of BioVersys.”

Dr. Seng Chin Mah, Chairman of BioVersys: “The ability of BioVersys to raise such a significant sum in this Series B round is testimony to BioVersys’ highly relevant portfolio of exciting AMR drug candidates addressing critical unmet medical needs as well as the acute awareness of knowledgeable investors of the impending antibiotic crisis. BioVersys remains firmly on track to execute on its corporate strategy of developing value-adding therapies and returning shareholder value. I am delighted to welcome Ed Holdener to our Board of Directors. His joining the board continues our ongoing human capital strategy of onboarding relevant skill sets and experience at the appropriate time.”

This fundraising was supported in part by goetzpartners securities Limited and Mirabaud Securities Limited.