Riders on the storm: VenatoRx bags a $42M round to back antibiotics pipeline
The small group of experienced biotech vets that started VenatoRx took their time getting the lead antibiotic program into the clinic. But after getting rolling with an NIH contract and funds from the Wellcome Trust in London, they are now banking a $42 million B round led by Versant Ventures with plans to take a direct shot at a possible FDA approval.
“It took several years of medicinal chemistry in order to finally get the profile we wanted,” Chris Burns, the CEO and co-founder at VenatoRx, tells me. That wasn’t unexpected. The company, based in Malvern, PA, was launched by a virtual group of just three after Novartis acquired their old company — Protez, with a lead antibiotic of its own — in 2008. And this is the first time the company has assembled a big block of cash to fund the next leg of development.
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