Antifungal drug developer F2G raises $100 million to fight 'superbugs', fund late-stage trial

By Kashish Tandon

(Reuters) - F2G said on Thursday it has raised $100 million from investors including AMR Action Fund, backed by large drugmakers such as Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, to help it develop treatments for infections caused by drug resistant "superbugs" or microbes.

The funding also includes investment from Novo Holdings that holds a controlling stake in Novo Nordisk. The latest round would help the UK-based company complete a global late-stage study of its lead drug, olorofim.

The drug is being developed to treat invasive fungal infections including aspergillosis - a rare infection that is resistant to antifungal medication.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the drug last year, citing the need for more data after a mid-stage trial.

The ongoing late-stage study for the drug could help get approval in Europe and Asia too, F2G CFO Ralf Schmid said.

Schmid said olorofim could be launched in the United States "as early as 2026," and its peak sales could cross $1 billion.

The pipeline for new antibiotics and antifungal drugs has suffered several setbacks over the years amid a wave of bankruptcies among smaller biotech firms as they struggled with anemic investments.

In 2020, 20 large drugmakers founded the AMR Action Fund to boost the pipeline of antifungal and antibiotic drugs, with a target of enabling as much as four novel antibiotics to hit the market by 2030.

AMR Action Fund led the latest funding round for F2G, with other investors including ICG Life Sciences and Advent Life Sciences.

AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner said the drug had a new mechanism, which is critically important for anti-infective treatments as microbes develop resistance to older drugs.

Olorofim could also target "a lot of fungus that are emerging as a much greater problem with global warming and climate change," said Skinner.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)