Endolytix Closed on Additional Financing with New Investment from the Kineticos AMR Accelerator Fund I
October 29, 2024 – Kineticos Life Sciences, a life sciences investor focused on companies striving to disrupt how drugs are developed, diseases are diagnosed, and patients are treated, announced that it has joined the existing syndicate of investors investing into Endolytix Technology Inc (“Endolytix”). This financing will support the progression of Endolytix’s lead drug candidate to treat Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) through pre-IND FDA discussions and IND-enabling preclinical studies.
Endolytix is a Boston-based startup focused on treating the rising health problem of NTM-disease with 150-200 thousand patients in the US, with detection growing at 8% each year. NTM disease can be lethal and comes from many species within the Mycobacteria group of bacteria that are very difficult to cure due to limited efficacy and poor patient responses to standard-of-care (SOC) multidrug regimens. There is a critical unmet need for alternative therapies for NTM disease to address problems with Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR), patient tolerance of toxicities associated with multidrug regimens, reduction in treatment times from an average of 1.5 years, and a high rate of reemergence of NTM after a year of culture-negative sputum testing.
A key problem in the treatment of NTM disease is many SOC drugs demonstrate poor uptake and efficacy in human alveolar macrophages, that are the primary host cells for mycobacterial growth and disease progression. Endolytix’s paradigm shifting approach leverages targeted drug delivery to load lytic enzymes into the right human cells and the right intracellular compartments that Mycobacteria infect. Endolytix’s innovative biological strategy harnesses the power of highly specific lytic enzymes encapsulated into liposomes with demonstrated killing of all Mycobacterial strains and species tested that are most frequently isolated clinically. Endolytix’s lead drug candidate has demonstrated potent efficacy in preclinical studies. This biologic approach bypasses antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to small molecule antibiotics and limitations in phage therapy.
“At Endolytix we designed a biological therapeutic to address NTM infections, that also works on M. tuberculosis, in attempt to surmount the limited efficacy and safety issues of current therapies. We are developing a novel-therapeutic to give NTM patients better options to overcome this deadly disease by leveraging specificity in drug delivery and enzymatic action while addressing the safety issues of multi-drug regimens with small molecule antibiotics,” stated Jason Holder Ph.D., CSO and cofounder of Endolytix Technologies Inc. Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University Dr. Richard Slayden stated “It’s an entirely new biological therapeutic that offers significant advantages over the standard of care small molecule antibiotics and circumvents their known mechanisms of drug resistance”.
Richard Snyder Ph.D., KAMRA I Venture Partner and Sumit Aggarwal, President and CEO of Eloxx Pharmaceuticals, will join Endolytix’s board of directors as part of this investment. Richard Snyder commented on joining the board and Kineticos’s support of Endolytix, “I am thrilled to work with the Endolytix team and fellow Board Members in the development of Endolytix’s products”, said Dr. Snyder. “Kineticos is highly aligned with Endolytix in addressing AMR and supporting the continued growth of the company”.
“I am really excited by the scientific progress Endolytix has made towards the development of a novel therapeutic to treat mycobacterial disease such as NTM and Mtb infection and I look forward to joining the board of Endolytix to continue to advance the company mission”. Sumit Aggarwal
About Kineticos Life Sciences
Kineticos envisions A World Without AMRTM. We are entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs build companies to improve patient outcomes. Kineticos invests in life science companies focused on significant, unmet medical needs across contract services, manufacturing, equipment, and therapeutic companies. Kineticos strives to disrupt how drugs are developed, diseases are diagnosed, and patients are treated.
Kineticos Media Contact
investorrelations@kineticos.com
Endolytix Contact
Jason Holder
jason@endolytx.bio