US-based biotechnology developer Opsonix launched yesterday with $8m of series A funding from Baxter Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Baxter, and angel investor Hansjörg Wyss.
Opsonix, a spin-out of Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, is working on treatments for blood-borne infectious diseases such as sepsis based on research by Donald Ingber and Michael Super.
The funding, which was led by Baxter, will be used to support the continued development of a therapy that is able to remove bacteria, fungi, parasites, virus, toxins and antibiotic-resistant organisms from the blood.
Eric Devroe, founder and CEO of Opsonix, said: “Opsonix’s pathogen-extracting therapy provides a novel therapeutic solution leveraging the broad binding activities of a natural human protein that may rapidly remove sepsis-causing pathogens – and the toxins they release – from a patient’s blood.
“With the strong support of our investors and a compelling body of evidence developed by our scientific founders, Opsonix will move forward expeditiously with preclinical studies to advance our pathogen-extracting therapy.”