CARB-X FUNDS LIMMATECH BIOLOGICS AG TO DEVELOP A VACCINE THAT PREVENTS GONORRHEA INFECTIONS

(BOSTON: February 27, 2024) – Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) is awarding US$2.2 million to LimmaTech Biologics AG to advance the development of its novel vaccine candidate targeted to prevent Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections. LimmaTech is a Swiss clinical stage biotech company that has built a robust pipeline of innovative vaccines to provide solutions against increasingly dangerous infections, including Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella.

The Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) bacterium causes gonorrhea, the second most commonly reported sexually-transmitted bacterial infection. Approximately 82 million people were infected globally in 2020. Patients with gonorrhea can face serious health effects, including pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pain, infertility, and an increased risk of contracting HIV. Since patients do not always exhibit symptoms, reported cases may only capture a fraction of the true burden.

“Resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae have evaded all but one existing antibiotic (ceftriaxone),” said Erin Duffy, PhD, R&D Chief of CARB-X. “Vaccines are powerful tools in the prevention of bacterial infections. LimmaTech’s vaccine project, if successful, could prevent the disease, and significantly curb the spread of resistant bacteria across the globe.”

The CARB-X award supports the development of LimmaTech’s vaccine candidate that incorporates multiple antigens commonly found on NG bacteria. The goal is to develop a cost-effective vaccine that elicits a robust immune response against different NG bacterial strains to help protect patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where affordability is vital and around the world.

“Gonorrhea is becoming increasingly resistant to treatment, which reinforces the pressing need for a highly effective and safe vaccine that can protect against this serious and pervasive pathogen,” said Dr. Franz-Werner Haas, CEO of LimmaTech. “We believe our proprietary vaccine technology offers advantages in efficacy, production scalability and simplicity to include multiple antigens that can effectively address bacterial infectious disease threats. We are thankful to CARB-X for its dedicated commitment to support and help expedite our development efforts as we move towards clinical testing of our vaccine candidate as a potential solution for the increased burden of antimicrobial resistance in gonorrhea.”

An estimated 1.27 million people died due to drug-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, a death toll that exceeded HIV/AIDS (864,000) and malaria (643,000) in that same year. CARB-X is building a pipeline of high-value products to prevent, diagnose and treat bacterial infections, including those that have become resistant to antibiotics. CARB-X emphasizes performance characteristics that will allow the broadest use of these products against infections driving the greatest global morbidity and mortality.

When CARB-X was founded in 2016, the early-stage antibiotic pipeline was stalled. Since then, CARB-X has supported 97 R&D projects in 13 countries, and CARB-X product developers have made tremendous progress: 18 projects have advanced into or completed clinical trials; 12 remain active in clinical development, including late-stage clinical trials; and two diagnostic products have reached the market. Additionally, at least 9 product developers with active R&D projects have already secured advanced development partnerships which can help support their clinical development after leaving the CARB-X portfolio.

In 2022, CARB-X launched new funding rounds to support R&D projects and fill critical gaps in the antibacterial pipeline. These include oral therapeutics to replace the workhorse antibiotics that are failing; vaccines for neonatal sepsis, which kills 2.5 million infants annually; and oral therapeutics, vaccines and rapid diagnostics for gonorrhea. LimmaTech’s vaccine is the sixth project to receive a CARB-X grant as part of the 2022-2023 funding call. Additional projects are under review, and new product developers will be announced this year. Register for the CARB-X newsletter to learn about upcoming funding calls that will be announced in 2024.

CARB-X funding for this research is supported by federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; under agreement number 75A50122C00028, and by awards from Wellcome (WT224842), Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the UK Department of Health and Social Care as part of the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in HHS, provides support in the form of in-kind services through access to a suite of preclinical services for product development. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of any CARB-X funders.