Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners’ BioDiscovery 4 – its fourth fund dedicated to life sciences – has made its first investment through its participation in the series A financing round of Allecra Therapeutics, which it co-leads with Forbion Capital Partners.
EMBL Ventures is also part of the syndicate.
Allecra was formed in 2013 in France and Germany as a strategic partnership between Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Limited (Chennai, India), the founders – including Allecra’s CEO Nicholas Benedict – and the two lead investors. This Series A financing of EUR15m will support early clinical development of two new antibiotic treatments designed to combat multi drug-resistant gram-negative bacteria.
Olivier Litzka, partner at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners and board director at Allecra, says: "Allecra’s strategic partnership with Orchid is an innovative collaboration bringing together Allecra’s strong development capability with Orchid’s track record in antibiotic research and manufacturing. Allecra is supported by a scientific advisory board consisting of world-renowned experts and Allecra’s board of directors comprises key appointments of entrepreneurs and industrialists with records of success in this area.
"We are glad to see Allecra become the first investment of our fund Biodiscovery 4. After our successful experience in the anti-infectives space through the investment of the BioDiscovery funds in Novexel, we are convinced that Allecra has all the major ingredients for success."
Nicholas Benedict, co-founder and chief executive of Allecra, says: "The formation of Allecra comes at a time when governments, non-governmental agencies and the medical community are crying out for urgent and decisive action to tackle the epidemic of antibiotic resistance. Our mission at Allecra is to develop new treatments which overcome selected bacterial resistance and which can be used to treat patients whose infections may otherwise have disastrous consequences."
