Repair Impact Fund, a $165m vehicle owned by Denmark-based pharmaceutical firm Novo Holdings, has confirmed its first four investments.
The vehicle provided $4.1m of funding for Minervax, a Netherlands-based company developing vaccines for pregnant women, as part of a €4.4m ($5m) round disclosed on Monday that included Sunstone Capital.
The proceeds will support development of a group B streptococcus (GBS) vaccine to prevent infections in newborns. Minervax had previously raised $4m in debt and equity financing from Novo unit Novo Seeds, Sunstone Capital, LF Investment, Danish Growth Foundation, Seed Capital and Lund University Innovation System in 2014.
The fund has also invested $1.7m in Procarta Biosystems, a UK-based company developing medicines to treat infections cause by resistant bacterial strains. Its lead candidate, PRO-202, is targeting urinary tract infections and intra-abdominal infections.
Repair made its first investment in September 2018, providing $7m for Polyphor, a Switzerland-based developer of treatments for drug-resistant bacteria, cystic fibrosis and metastatic breast cancer, and will also invest a further CHF4.7m ($4.8m) if certain milestones are met.
Polyphor floated in a $155m initial public offering in May 2018 having previously raised funding from investors including Novartis Venture Fund, a corporate venturing vehicle owned by pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The fund also invested $10m in the $75m IPO of Entasis Therapeutics, a US-based antibacterial product developer spun off from pharmaceutical firm Astra Zeneca, in September 2018. The capital was provided as part of a larger commitment by Novo, which had previously supplied venture funding for the company.
Novo launched the $165m Repair Impact Fund in February 2018. The vehicle is expected to back about 20 projects over a five-year period, investing between $20m and $40m per year.
Aleks Engel, director of Repair Impact Fund, said: “We back companies we believe can change the future of antibiotic resistance. Despite growing recognition of this global threat, there is an early-stage funding gap for new treatments, specifically from lead optimisation up to phase 1 data.”