Spero Therapeutics acquires antibacterial candidates from Pro Bono Bio

The assets acquired have been developed by Cantab Anti Infectives Ltd, a PBB group company.

Ankit Mahadevia, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Spero, said: “The acquisition of these antibacterial candidates from PBB demonstrates our commitment to finding new approaches to treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections that continue to pose a serious threat to society.

"We are continuing to build our pipeline of differentiated anti-infectives and are excited to have gained access to this next-generation set of candidates for further study."

Michael Earl, Chief Operating Officer of PBB, added “We believe that the antibacterial candidates discovered by Cantab have the potential to provide novel, safer alternatives to treat serious Gram-negative infections. We are pleased to transition the program to the highly experienced team at Spero Therapeutics who possesses the specific know how needed to bring the program through pre-clinical and clinical stages of development in this therapy area.”

Spero will continue to work collaboratively with Cantab to develop the acquired antibacterial compounds for treatment of multi-drug resistant strains of serious Gram-negative pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.

Under the terms of the agreement, Spero will receive all intellectual property associated with Cantab’s program in exchange for undisclosed upfront and milestone payments, as well as royalties upon commercialization of any therapeutic candidates.

The Cantab program is currently substantially funded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, through contract HHSN272201500014C, which is being used to evaluate the potential of these candidate compounds against certain Gram-negative Category A and B pathogens NIAID has identified as possible diseases of public health concern.