Pedanius Therapeutics secures £499,532 SBRI Contract to Tackle Antimicrobial Resistance in Humans

Pedanius Therapeutics Ltd, an early stage biopharmaceutical company applying its proprietary RNAi platform technology in the development of novel precision medicines for the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infections, announced today that it has been awarded a contract from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as part of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) and in support of the UK government’s recently released 5-year plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance in humans. Under the contract, which is being managed by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, Pedanius will focus on accelerating its discovery efforts on key targets across multiple Gram-negative bacterial pathogens that have been classified by the World Health Organization as either “critical” or “high” for which antibiotics are urgently needed.

RNAi has been shown to be an effective approach for the treatment of diseases, and it offers the potential to overcome some of the key limitations of traditional small molecule approaches to Gram negative infections. Pedanius will utilise its unique patent-pending delivery technology to efficiently facilitate the targeted delivery of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) against Gramnegative bacteria and robustly and durably silence selective genes in vitro and in vivo.

Dr Martin Quibell, co-founder and CSO, said: “SBRI’s commitment in providing Pedanius Therapeutics with a contract following a competitive and peer-reviewed process provides a vote of confidence in our non-conventional approach. New innovative modalities are needed to overcome the aggressive threat of multi-drug resistance in Gram-negative bacterial infections. Our aim is to be the leading RNAi company developing treatments for Gram-negative bacterial infections”.