Boehringer Ingelheim, a biopharmaceutical company, the life science company Evotec SE, and bioMérieux, a leader in in vitro diagnostics, have formed a joint venture to create the next generation of antimicrobials along with actionable diagnostics to fight Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
The resulting company, Aurobac Therapeutics SAS, will develop a new precision medicine approach, from diagnosis to cure. The aspiration is to succeed in the fight against AMR, which is a major public health threat. Having routine surgery such as caesarean sections or hip replacements may become life threatening, and complications from common diseases such as diabetes and injuries or cuts will become harder to manage because of growing resistance to antibiotics in patients.
“The rise of antibiotic-resistant infections – also called antimicrobial resistance, or AMR – is indeed a looming global crisis,” said Michel Pairet, head of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Innovation Unit and member of the Board of Managing Directors. ”Antibiotic resistance kills about 1.27 million people globally every year and it has been estimated that by 2050, as many as 10 million worldwide deaths could result from AMR, making it potentially deadlier than cancer.”
Werner Lanthaler, CEO of Evotec, added: “The grim prospect of a post-antibiotic era has many causes but only one solution: the development of new, targeted, and effective antimicrobial therapies. We are excited to launch Aurobac together with our partners at Boehringer Ingelheim and bioMérieux, to combine our complementary strengths. By leveraging Evotec’s multimodality approach to infectious diseases, we are confident that Aurobac will be able to generate much-needed progress to tackle the global challenge of AMR.”
“bioMérieux has a strong expertise in antimicrobial resistance. We supply the most comprehensive integrated diagnostic solutions to support an appropriate use of antibiotics (antimicrobial stewardship),” said Alexandre Mérieux, bioMérieux chairman and CEO. “Our role within the joint venture is to develop and commercialize diagnostic tests, including Companion Diagnostics, which deliver rapid, reliable and actionable results. This participation in Aurobac is perfectly aligned with bioMérieux’ full commitment to sustain antibiotic efficacy for future generations.”
Aurobac will work to shift the strategy related to antibiotic treatment regimens which at the moment leans heavily on empirical approaches using broad-spectrum and unfocused medicines. The goal is to turn this into a precision approach, using new highly effective and targeted modalities, combined with rapid and actionable diagnostics to quickly identify pathogens and their resistance patterns, and supported by new economic models.
Funded by Boehringer Ingelheim as lead investor with 30 million EUR and by Evotec and bioMérieux with 5 million EUR each, the 40 million EUR joint venture, which has its headquarters in Lyon (France), combines the expertise of Evotec, one of the most active research companies in infectious diseases, with bioMérieux’s expertise in infectious disease diagnostics and with Boehringer Ingelheim’s broad drug discovery and significant clinical development capabilities.
