Today MinervaX, a privately held Danish biotech company, announced that it has been awarded an investment of 3.6 mEUR from the Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund for the development of therapies to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). An additional investment of 0.8 mEUR was obtained from SunStone Capital. The funding will be used to help finalise Phase I development of the company’s protein-only GBS vaccine, targeting pregnant women for the prevention of life-threatening infections in newborns.
Jane Plumb MBE, Group B Strep Support’s Chief Executive, said:
“We welcome the news that MinervaX’s Phase 1 program of their group B Strep vaccine will be finalised thanks to funding from the REPAIR Impact Fund. Group B Strep is the most common cause of severe infection in newborn babies and of meningitis in babies under 3 months.
A safe and effective vaccine is the ‘holy grail’ of preventing group B Strep infection and could protect more than any other prevention strategy. It is urgently needed and I’m delighted that the research into MinervaX’s vaccine candidate will continue.”
