Biofusion plc (“Biofusion”), the university IP commercialisation company, today announces the launch of a new portfolio company, Absynth Biologics Ltd (“Absynth”), which will develop vaccines and antibodies to treat infections caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) including its more difficult-to-treat drug-resistant form, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA).
Biofusion has agreed to invest up to £325,000 in the Company to enable it to produce lead vaccine and therapeutic antibody candidates to begin the clinical trial process.
Hospital acquired infections are an increasing public health concern and are responsible for a rise in the number of hospital deaths. These infections are caused by micro-organisms such as S. aureus and in particular its drug-resistant form, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Absynth’s unique patented technology has been developed at the University of Sheffield and will be used to develop an MSRA vaccine and antibodies to treat significant MRSA related infections as well as other applications.
David Baynes, CEO of Biofusion, said:
“The rise of the so-called ‘super bugs’ is a significant challenge for healthcare systems in the UK and internationally. We believe the Absynth approach offers a potentially effective alternative to the use of conventional antibiotics which are no longer able to successfully treat all hospital acquired infections and as such addresses a very large market and medical need. We look forward to building Absynth and its unique technology and will look to work with pharmaceutical partners to bring these exciting new products to the market.”
In accordance with all its new spin-out companies, Biofusion owns 100% of the university’s share in Absynth, resulting in a 60% shareholding on incorporation.
The launch of Absynth brings the total number of companies in the Biofusion portfolio to 22, 15 based on research from the University of Sheffield and seven based on research from Cardiff University.
The Absynth project was one of the original participants in the Yorkshire Forward-funded Bioscience Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship (BYEF) programme, the goal of which is to increase entrepreneurial activity in Yorkshire universities' bioscience departments and to accelerate and support the formation of start up bioscience businesses.