Boehringer Ingelheim, Evotec and bioMérieux Form $40M Venture to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

Boehringer Ingelheim, Evotec, and bioMérieux have created Aurobac Therapeutics, a joint venture focused on fighting antimicrobial resistance, or AMR. 

The joint venture launched with €40 million ($40.8 million) in funding, and will be headquartered in Lyon, France. It will combine the best of its founders to develop precision antimicrobials and companion diagnostics. 

Related article: UK Launches World-First Program With Two Antimicrobial Drugs to Counter Superbugs 

The Need For Better Antimicrobial Therapies 

AMR is a rising public health crisis. It’s popularly estimated that by 2050, antibiotic resistance will claim 10 million lives worldwide and overtake cancer as the leading cause of death. Even regular surgeries like Caesarian sections or hip replacements may become life threatening, and complications from common diseases like diabetes will be harder to manage due to AMR. 

Current strategies on antibiotic treatment rely heavily on broad-spectrum medicines. Aurobac’s goal is to change treatment into a precision approach. 

“The grim prospect of a post-antibiotic era has many causes but only one solution: The development of new, targeted, and effective antimicrobial therapies,” said Werner Lanthaler, CEO of Evotec. 

Aurobac will leverage Evotec’s multimodal approach to develop targeted antimicrobials, and utilize bioMérieux’s expertise in diagnostics to support the appropriate use of antibiotics. 

Aurobac’s funding includes a €30 million investment from Boehringer Ingelheim and €5 million each from Evotec and bioMérieux. 

Boehringer Ingelheim’s participation is part of a “pandemic preparedness”” initiative. This includes a €50 million ($50.9 million) investment in the AMR action fund, a collective of over 20 companies with a goal to bring 2-4 new antibiotics to patients by 2030.

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Joy Lin

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