Inhibrx, a clinical stage biologic therapeutic company using proprietary single domain antibody platforms to develop multispecific and multivalent therapeutics for oncology, infectious disease and inflammatory conditions, announced a collaboration with CARB-X, (Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Accelerator) focused on funding the advancement of products to treat drug-resistant bacteria. Inhibrx will receive an initial award of up to $4.55M and potentially up to $1.49M more from CARB-X based on the achievement of certain milestones related to the advancement of INBRX-111.
CARB-X is funded by its global partners including BARDA, Wellcome Trust, and NIAID to advance promising antibiotic candidates, including INBRX-111, through the early stages of development.
"The Inhibrx project enriches the diversity of the CARB-X pipeline with an approach that has the potential to prevent or treat drug-resistant infections, like Pseudomonas, and save lives," said Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X, the world's leading non-profit partnership dedicated to accelerating the development of antibiotics, vaccines, diagnostics and other products to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. "The projects in the Powered by CARB-X portfolio are in the early stages of research, and there is always a high risk of failure. But if successful, these projects, including Inhibrx's antibody project, hold exciting potential in the fight against the deadliest antibiotic-resistant bacteria."
INBRX-111 is a multi-specific and multi-epitopic anti-virulence/opsonizing biotherapeutic targeting Pseudomonas, a difficult-to-treat Gram-negative bacterial pathogen. Through its novel mechanism of action, INBRX-111 has the potential to be a best-in-class anti-Pseudomonas antibody for both curative and preventative therapies with broad strain specificity and excellent in vivo efficacy.