Austria-based biotechnology company Nabriva Therapeutics closed a $120m series B round today featuring Novartis Venture Fund, a corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The round was co-led by venture capital firm Vivo Capital and investment firm OrbiMed and featured EcoR1 Capital, Boxer Capital, HBM Partners, Phase4 Partners, Wellcome Trust and Global Life Science Ventures (GLSV).
Founded in 2006, Nabriva is developing a class of antibiotics called pleuromutilins to treat infections caused by multi-drug resistant pathogens.
The initial $50m tranche of the series B funding will support the advancement of Nabriva’s lead product candidate, lefamulin, into clinical Phase 3 studies for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP), and to further develop its product pipeline.
Nabriva had previously raised €66m ($71.7m) in funding, including €42m from a 2006 series A round, from Novartis Venture Fund, Phase4, HBM, Wellcome Trust and GLSV.
Colin Broom, CEO of Nabriva, said: “We are delighted to have attracted investment from some of the world’s leading healthcare investors. It is validation of Nabriva’s approach in developing the pleuromutilin antibiotic class, which has a unique mechanism of action thereby helping to combat the current and evolving emergence of resistance to currently available antibiotics.
We appreciate the commitment of our existing investors and the continued confidence they have shown in Nabriva.”