CARB-X Partnership Puts Antibiotics' Future In Biotech Startups' Hands

A new public-private collaboration may have the goal of bringing new innovations to the critical fight against antimicrobial resistance, but the biotech startups involved could become attractive targets and end up boosting the pipelines of larger companies – a sector that largely has abandoned the early research and development of antibiotics.

Indeed, one of the key goals of the new collaboration, known as Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), which got off the ground on July 28, is to de-risk early stage antibiotic development to make products more favorably positioned for later investment, particularly from venture capitalists and others in the private sector, to carry the medicines to the marketplace, said Joe Larsen, acting deputy director at the Biomedical