Procarta Biosystems, a company spun-out of the John Innes Centre in 2007 to develop a technology designed to defeat antibiotic-resistant superbugs, has received significant seed funding
The Rainbow Seed Fund and the Iceni Seedcorn Fund have provided £320,000 to allow Procarta to further develop its DNA decoy technique, which aims to restore antibiotic efficacy against resistant superbugs, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).
Procarta's pioneering approach to combating the threat of superbugs is based on injectable DNA therapies, called Transcription Factor Decoys (TFDs).
TFDs are short pieces of DNA which inactivate the resistance genes the bacteria need to counter antibiotics.
This new funding will initially allow Procarta to develop TFDs that prevent resistance to vancomycin, the so-called antibiotic of last resort.
"We plan to be able to use this latest and valuable support to further validate the outstanding potential of our proprietary approach to combating resistant superbugs," said Procarta's research director, Michael McArthur.
Mark White of the Rainbow Seed Fund said: "We have worked alongside the John Innes Centre and its commercialisation arm PBL for some time and have a high regard for their ability to spot promising commercial opportunities.
"In Procarta's case we were particularly impressed by the skills of the key people involved as well as the scale of the opportunity.
"In addition, we were attracted to the possibility of achieving a significant breakthrough in an important but somewhat neglected area of healthcare.
"There remains a lot of work to be done, but the venture holds a great deal of promise".
Procarta's unique technology can breathe new life into existing drugs and prolong the commercial usefulness of antibiotics and in doing so counter growing concern over the rise of drug-resistance in bacterial infections.
The scientific founders, Michael McArthur and Professor Mervyn Bibb, hope to move to pre-clinical trials in 2009 with their first product, after which Procarta will work with pharmaceutical companies to bring it to market.
Having established the proof of concept with vancomycin, Procarta plans to build a strong product pipeline by applying its proprietary technology to reinvigorate the use of a broad range of valuable antibiotics.
"We are extremely excited about the promise of Procarta's technology, targeting as it does one of the most significant issues to hit the public healthcare system in the 21st century," said a spokesman for Iceni.
Procarta Biosystems will be moving its operations to the Norwich Bioincubator on 1 July 2008 and has also recently appointed Nigel Crockett as commercial director.
Crockett has over 15 years of experience in the Pharma-biotech sector, especially in early stage R+D collaborations and licensing.
