NovaBiotics Highlights Advantages of Novel Immune-Based Approach to Combatting Fungal and Bacterial Infectious Diseases at Peptide Therapeutics Forum 2021

ABERDEEN, Scotland, Aug. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NovaBiotics Ltd, a privately held clinical stage company developing novel immune based therapies for life-threatening and life-limiting diseases, announces that Deborah O'Neil, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of NovaBiotics, delivered a presentation highlighting NovaBiotics' novel peptide drug candidates at the Peptide Therapeutics Forum 2021 that took place August 19-20, 2021, in Basel, Switzerland.  The event featured presentations that provided exciting new insights into peptide therapeutics.    

In her presentation titled, "Novel peptide therapy candidates for medically unmet fungal and bacterial infections," Dr. O'Neil focused her discussion on NovaBiotics' novel antifungal and antibacterial therapy candidates that the Company generated from its proprietary cationic antimicrobial peptide technology platform. 

The presentation highlighted NP339, a 2 kDa linear fungicidal peptide comprising basic, polar residues and is active against moulds and yeasts including Aspergillus fumigatusⁱ and NP432, a linear 2kDa bactericidal peptide comprising both polar and nonpolar, aromatic residues and has activity against Gram-negative and some Gram-positive bacteria including Acinetobacter baumannii and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

"Faced with a next pandemic of antimicrobial resistance, the need for new classes of safe and effective antimicrobials has never been more acute. Immune-based, non-antibiotic antimicrobial strategies, such as NovaBiotics' peptides, have manifold therapeutic advantages over microbiological approaches to combatting infection and existing antifungal and antibacterial therapy classes. These include rapid microbicidal mechanism of action, agnosticism to metabolic and drug-resistance status of the target pathogen and specificity which circumvents off-target pharmacology," stated Dr. O'Neil in her presentation. 

"NovaBiotics is developing proprietary compounds based on the body's innate immune effector molecules to advance a truly revolutionary approach to combatting life-threatening and life-limiting diseases.  We believe these compounds, including our peptides, represent promising new classes of therapy with novel modalities and the potential to transform treatment paradigms in a number of poorly served diseases," added Dr. O'Neil.

About NovaBiotics

NovaBiotics Ltd is a privately held, clinical-stage biotechnology company revolutionizing the treatment of medically unmet, life-threatening and life-limiting diseases with novel, immune-based therapies. A leading innovator with the ambition to transform treatment paradigms in inflammatory, infectious and respiratory disease, the Company's robust technology and business model has been validated through successful development from concept through to phase 3 clinical development of its most advanced product candidates.

In addition to the lead NM002 programme for community acquired pneumonia and the Company's other late-stage assets (NM001 for pulmonary exacerbations of cystic fibrosis and NP213/Novexatin^® for onychomycosis), NovaBiotics has generated a robust pipeline of earlier stage, high-value drug candidates including NP339 for life-threatening and drug-resistant invasive and respiratory fungal disease and NP432 for multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

For further information please contact:

NovaBiotics:
Dr. Deborah O'Neil
Chief Executive Officer
Telephone: 0044 (0)1224 711377
Email: deborah@novabiotics.co.uk

Anne Marie Fields
Managing Director
Rx Communications Group
Email: afields@rxir.com

ⁱ Vanessa Duncan , Daniel Smith , Laura Simpson , Emma Lovie , Laura Katvars , Leon Berge , Jennifer Robertson , Shane Smith , Carol Munro, Derry Mercer, Deborah O'Neil. Preliminary Characterization of NP339, a Novel Polyarginine Peptide with Broad Antifungal Activity. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2021. 16, 65.