AMR Action Fund Announces Investment in BioVersys AG

The AMR Action Fund, the world’s largest public-private partnership investing in biotech companies that are developing antimicrobials, announced that it has invested in BioVersys AG, a clinical-stage company based in Basel, Switzerland. The transaction marks the Fund’s first investment in Europe and is an important step toward building an international portfolio of companies that are developing urgently needed antimicrobials.

Drug-resistant bacterial infections were associated with nearly 5 million deaths in 2019 and directly killed 1.27 million people, more than HIV or malaria. BioVersys’ lead candidate, BV100, is being developed for lung and bloodstream infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB). Recent research published in The Lancet showed that CRAB infections could kill as many as 100,000 people a year. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified CRAB as one of the highest-priority pathogens for which new treatments are needed.