Storied Japanese pharma Shionogi is upping its arsenal in the fight against antibiotic resistance. The company is paying 5 million Swiss francs ($6.3 million) upfront for a preclinical antibiotic program from BioVersys, which the two companies will work together to turn into clinical candidates.
BioVersys can earn as much as 479 million Swiss francs (about $604 million) in regulatory and sales milestones, as well as tiered royalties, should Shionogi decide to exercise its option on clinic-ready antibiotics, according to a July 2 release.
The program that caught Shionogi’s eye is BV500, BioVersys’ effort to develop new treatments for nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections. Mycobacteria are found all over the world and can cause lung infections, mainly in patients who already have a lung condition like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The new collaboration focuses on ansamycin candidates, a class of antibiotics that are produced by a group of bacteria called Actinomycetes and disrupt RNA manufacturing within targeted bacterial cells.
“This collaboration reduces research and development risk for BioVersys while preserving financial discipline,” BioVersys co-founder and CEO Marc Gitzinger, Ph.D., said in the release. “It also expands the reach of our pipeline and ensures the expedited development of our drug candidates.”
BioVersys’ research teams in France and Switzerland have developed multiple ansamycin compounds that kill NTMs, the company said in the release. These assets don’t lead to cross-resistance with other kinds of antibiotics, BioVersys noted, which is when a microbe evolves a work-around for one kind of antibiotic that also works against other antibiotics.
The most common NTM lung infections are caused by Mycobacterium avium complex and Mycobacterium abscessus subspecies, which BioVersys said affect about 250,000 people every year. Treating NTM infections can take years and multiple different antibiotics, according to the American Lung Association.
“This collaboration reflects our commitment to advancing innovative treatments for infectious diseases with significant unmet medical needs,” John Keller, Ph.D., senior vice president of Shionogi’s R&D supervisory unit, said in the release. “Shionogi will be bringing our scientific knowledge and operational capabilities fully to bear to maximize the potential of BioVersys’ BV500 program.”
The $6.3 million Shionogi is pledging upfront for the BV500 program pales in comparison to the $100 million bet the Japanese giant placed on F2G’s novel antifungal olorofim in 2022, a gamble that has yet to pay off. While Shionogi took charge of European and Asian development of the asset, U.K.-based F2G has had little luck in North America, with the FDA rejecting olorofim in 2023.