Macrolide Pharmaceuticals, a next-generation antibiotics company developing macrolides that are first-in-class with Gram-negative activity for a broad range of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, announced that Mahesh Karande has joined the company as President and CEO. The company is also pleased to announce the completion of a $20 million financing led by current investors Advent Life Sciences, Gurnet Point Capital, Novartis Venture Fund, Roche Venture Fund and SR One.

“This latest financing represents the strong confidence from our investors in the path-breaking approach we are taking to address unmet needs in the antibiotic landscape. This positions Macrolide to further the pioneering work the team has done to date in advancing new macrolide antibiotics with Gram-negative activity,” said Mr. Karande. “We believe that advancing first-in-class antibiotics that are active against lethal multi-drug resistant bacteria opens the door to a new and meaningful way to address the growing public health issue of treatment gaps due to antibiotic resistance.”

Mr. Karande has held increasing responsibilities at Novartis AG where he ran large businesses in the US and internationally. He served as Vice President and U.S. Oncology Business Head for Breast and Renal Solid Tumors, President and Pharma Head for Africa and Egypt, and Head of Strategy and Business Development for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. He has deep and broad global experiences in operations, strategy, policy, licensing and partnering. He joins Macrolide from Intarcia Therapeutics where he served as Vice President and General Manager.

“We are excited to have Mahesh join the team at Macrolide Pharmaceuticals and bring his considerable experience in leadership, business-building, policy and strategy to the company at this important juncture,” said Henry Skinner, Chairman of the Board.

The new funding from both the financing and previously announced CARB-X award will accelerate development of the company’s novel, IV and orally-available macrolide antibiotics to address serious infections, including work to support filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its lead program that addresses a significant unmet clinical need that exists for antibiotics to treat infections caused by resistant Gram-negative pathogens. The company is broadly pursuing novel macrolide antibiotics for several illnesses caused by Gram-negative pathogens for which a critical unmet clinical need exists.