Arix Bioscience on Friday said that its new business group, Iterum, has raised $65 million by closing a Series B investment round.
According to the company’s press release, the raise included new investors Advent Life Sciences, Domain Associates, Bay City Capital and Pivotal bioVenture Partners, with all Iterum’s previous investors also participating in the financing round. Arix Bioscience’s Mark Chin will join Iterum’s Board of Directors.
Iterum is developing sulopenem, a novel oral and intravenous antibiotic, known as a penem, for the treatment of Gram-negative multi-drug resistant infections. Sulopenem has shown potent in-vitro activity against Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL) mutants of E. coli and K. pneumonia, which are related to uncomplicated urinary tract infections, complicated urinary tract infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections (uUTI, cUTI and cIAI).
Arix said that it would use the cash for completion of a Phase 3 pivotal trial in uUTI and for proceeding with the broader Phase 3 pivotal program. Trials are expected to begin in the first half of 2018 and Iterum plans to file an NDA with the FDA by year end 2019, the company said.
Joe Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Arix Bioscience plc, said that this is a significant deal for Arix, the first since our recent IPO, and one which further demonstrates the depth and quality of our pipeline.