Omnix Medical To Begin Clinical Studies Of Life Saving Drug Against Resistant Bacteria
Omnix Medical, a Jerusalem-based biopharmaceutical company, has completed an $8.5 million round led by Tal Capital (US) and Entrée Capital (IL) in association with UK based businessman Vincent Chenkwiz of CBG Group (UK) and joined by Xenia Ventures (IL) VLX Ventures (IL) and the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA). Since its inception, the company has raised $10M.
Omnix Medical is developing the next generation of antibiotics for the treatment of life-threatening infections involving drug-resistant bacteria.
Widespread misuse and overuse of antibiotics have led to the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to our last line of defense drugs. The WHO warns “Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world. New resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. … Without urgent action, we are heading for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can once again kill.”
Today, modern medicine is entirely dependent on our ability to eliminate bacteria with antibiotic drugs. Omnix is targeting a huge and constantly growing antibiotics market with $45B annual sales and alarmingly few solutions against the spread of resistance.
Omnix Medical was founded in 2015 by Dr. Moshik Cohen-Kutner, Dr. Niv Bachnoff, and Mr. Rom Lakritz, to fight this urgent need for new life-saving antibiotics. Omnix proprietary technology eliminates bacteria by mimicking the adaptive immune system of insects. Insects use unique molecules to efficiently and selectively kill resistant bacteria strains without toxic effects. This mechanism has endured for 200 million years and is the core of Omnix technology.
Research at Omnix proved that their novel technology yields antibiotic agents that are significantly more potent than available drugs and with no resistance. Omnix has successfully completed animal-model experiments that proved efficacy and safety. This current finance round allows Omnix to enter First-in-Human clinical studies with the aim to win the fight against Hospital-Associated Infections.
Dr. Moshik Cohen-Kutner, CEO, “Securing this finance round allows Omnix to safely and promptly enter into clinical development with our lead compound OMN6. OMN6 will be a life-saving drug that is a game-changer in the anti-infective field.”
Dr. Niv Bachnoff, CSO “We took a technology that has proved very efficient at killing bacteria for 200 million years and improved it to offer the world a new antibiotic to fight drug-resistant bacteria.”
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 966627 (OMNIX MEDICAL).