Entasis Therapeutics, a leader in the discovery and development of breakthrough anti-infective products,  announced the closing of an upsized $31.9 million Series B-1 extension financing to advance its pipeline of clinical and preclinical products targeting drug-resistant Gram-negative infections. The financing expansion adds Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Sofinnova Ventures and TPG Biotech to the original Series B funding round of $50 million, which closed in March 2016, led by Clarus and included Frazier Healthcare Partners, Novo A/S and Eventide Funds.

“We welcome this strong support from a group of experienced and successful investors who understand the need and market opportunity for new medicines to combat multi drug-resistant bacterial infections”

Entasis also announced that Tracy Saxton, Ph.D., Managing Partner at Pivotal, Heather Behanna, Ph.D., Principal at Sofinnova, and Heather Preston, M.D., Partner at TPG joined the Company’s Board of Directors concurrent with the financing.

“We welcome this strong support from a group of experienced and successful investors who understand the need and market opportunity for new medicines to combat multi drug-resistant bacterial infections,” said Manos Perros, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Entasis. “This additional financing will enable us to continue advancing our portfolio of innovative anti-infective programs into mid and late-stage clinical development, with an immediate focus on drug-resistant, Gram-negative bacterial infections that currently have high mortality rates and significant unmet medical needs.”

Entasis’ programs are derived from a proprietary drug discovery and preclinical platform, targeting serious Gram-negative infections such as Acinetobacter baumannii and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. The approach uses bacterial genomics, molecular dynamics and structure-based design in a highly directed, focused way to bring forward innovative, meaningfully differentiated new antibiotics with the goal of improved efficacy and tolerability against these very challenging pathogens.

“The Entasis team is developing an impressive portfolio of anti-infectives to combat the problem of drug resistance, including the World Health Organizations (WHO) Priority 1 critical pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii,” said Dr. Saxton. “We look forward to working with them to advance multiple differentiated programs for critical hospital infections.”