Zikani Therapeutics

About:

Zikani Therapeutics is a new anti-infective company founded to advance groundbreaking technology.

Website: https://www.zikani.com/

Top Investors: SR One, Novartis Venture Fund, Advent Life Sciences, Roche Venture Fund, CARB-X

Description:

Zikani Therapeutics are among the most widely used, most effective, and safest antibiotics to reach clinical practice; in fact, azithromycin has been among the world’s most widely used antibiotics for the past several years. But, while current macrolides are highly effective against some major bacteria, they are ineffective against others, especially gram-negative bacteria, the cause of most serious infections in the US. The first three generations of macrolides have very limited activity against gram-negative, and the sole drug in the current fourth-generation, solithromycin, has only slightly greater activity. Within other antibiotic classes, a limited number of compounds are in development to treat resistant gram-negative infections, and even fewer are available both intravenously and orally, as would be expected with macrolides. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.