Glox Therapeutics Secures £4.3M Seed Funding to Develop Precision Antimicrobials Targeting Drug-resistant Bacteria
Glox Therapeutics, a company pioneering the development of precision antibiotic therapies based on naturally occurring bacteriocins, today announced it has raised £4.3M in seed funding to develop effective targeted therapeutics against antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The Company will use the funding to establish laboratories in Oxford and Glasgow and expand its team to accelerate its bacteriocin development programme. The investment round was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Scottish Enterprise.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major public health crisis throughout the world. It is estimated that around 1.27 million people per year die as a result of AMR due to the therapeutic failure of available antibiotics.* By 2050, AMR is predicted to surpass 10 million deaths globally per year at a cost of $100 trillion dollars; hence, there is an urgent need to develop new effective antimicrobial therapeutics.**
Glox Therapeutics is developing precision antibiotics utilising engineered protein bacteriocins. These novel antimicrobials exhibit remarkable potency and specificity, enabling them to effectively and selectively target Gram-negative pathogens that have already developed AMR, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Bacteriocins, which are naturally produced by bacteria, possess antimicrobial properties against strains of the same or related species. Leveraging the power of bacteriocins, Glox Therapeutics aims to advance the field of antimicrobial therapy by overcoming resistance to traditional antibiotics. It will focus on selectively eradicating target pathogens while preserving the patient’s microbiomes, ensuring a more balanced and effective treatment strategy with reduced side-effects.
The Company was founded in February 2023 by recognised leaders in the bacteriocin field: Prof Daniel Walker from the University of Glasgow (now at the University of Strathclyde) and Prof Colin Kleanthous, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), from the University of Oxford. Dr James Clark was appointed as CEO in April this year. He has been involved in precision medicine for 25 years and has extensive C-suite level experience in the development and commercialisation of diagnostic and therapeutic products at PredictImmune, EnteroBiotix, Inivata, Enterome, MDxHealth and GSK.
