Novo Holdings Repair Impact Fund supports MinervaX EUR 72 million financing to develop vaccine against Group B Streptococcus

Novo Holdings’s Repair Impact Fund yesterday announced that it has participated in the EUR 72 million financing of MinervaX, a Danish biotechnology company developing a novel vaccine against Group B Streptococcus (GBS). Novo Holdings first invested in Minervax in 2014 and remains its largest shareholder, a company statement notified.

According to the statement, the financing will enable MinervaX to advance the late-stage development of its GBS vaccine candidate in preparation for a phase-III clinical trial. The vaccine candidate was recently awarded Prime status by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its potential to prevent life-threatening infections in new-born babies. MinervaX aims to expand its clinical development team and evaluate the phase-II clinical data for efficacy and safety ahead of publication next year.

Emmanuelle Coutanceau, Partner, Novo Holdings, and Board Member, MinervaX, said in the statement, “MinervaX is working towards a potential life-saving vaccine hence making a vital contribution to the global fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR). As the largest investor in the company, we are proud to see the immense progress MinervaX has achieved and are delighted to see the company approach phase-III preparations in an area of huge unmet need. This is a milestone for the REPAIR Impact Fund as the first company in its portfolio to reach such an advanced development stage.”

Adding to it, Aleks Engel, Partner, Novo Holdings, and Director, Repair Impact Fund, also said, “Over the last decade, investors and big pharma abandoned the field of antibiotic development because of the relatively low return on investment. More recently, a new wave of research targetting high-priority-resistant pathogens has emerged. Our mission at the Repair Impact Fund is to support those ventures developing novel solutions to avoid the further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections, a silent epidemic. As it plans for phase-III studies, MinervaX may soon provide an alternative to the widespread use of antibiotics, thereby being strategically aligned with our purpose of increasing humanity’s therapeutic arsenal in the fight against AMR.”

More than 3,500 people die each day from infections resistant to most or all antibiotics, and the number keeps increasing. Such infections are projected to kill more people than cancer by 2050, the statement claimed.

Per Fischer, Chief Executive Officer, MinervaX, concluded in the statement, “……..GBS can be life-threatening for newborn babies and there is no approved, universally available vaccine to date. I would like to thank the Repair Impact Fund and fellow investors as well as the MinervaX team who have worked very hard on our vaccine candidate in preparation for the final stage of clinical development.”