Biotech firm wins public cash to develop fungal treatment

AN ABERDEEN biotech firm has won £1.8 million of funding to help develop a treatment to combat lifethreatening fungal infections, writes Scott Wright.

Novabiotics secured the cash in a research competition, led by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), aimed at tackling antimicrobial resistance in humans.

It will use the funding to further develop Novamycin, described as a first-in-class antifungal compound with a potential to combat life threatening and drug resistance blood stream and tissue fungal infections.

The company, established in 2004, said Novamycin is active against fungi, including drug resistant forms, for which existing therapies do not work. It said Novamycin utilises the natural antifungal defence system employed by the body, in contrast to other antifungal agents which it says do not always distinguish healthy human cells from a fungal pathogen.

Dr Deborah O’neil, chief executive of Novabiotics, said: “This award allows us to accelerate the next key stage of Novamycin’s development towards being a much-needed solution to life threatening fungal infections against which the limited number of existing therapies are ineffective. This is a somewhat neglected and under-invested area of antimicrobial research”.