Avails Medical awarded $2.5M in CARB-X funding for the development of its rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing device to identify the most effective antibiotic therapy

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Feb 01, 2021, 08:00 ET

MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Avails Medical, a pioneer in rapid, automated and fully electrical antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) announced today it was awarded up to $2.5M in non-dilutive funding from CARB-X, the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator. CARB-X is a global non-profit partnership based at Boston University School of Law and dedicated to funding the development of new antibiotics, vaccines, diagnostics and other products to address antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Funds will support the development of Avails Medicals' eAST technology, a fully electrical antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) device to significantly reduce the time-to-results and enable health care providers to rapidly determine the most effective antibiotic treatment for patients with severe bloodstream infections, especially those involving multidrug-resistant pathogens.

The company will be eligible for an additional $14.7 million in non-dilutive funding from Carb-X upon successful completion of milestones.

Speed is critical in the treatment of serious bacterial infections. Every hour delay of effective treatment increases the risk of complications and septic shock", said Erin Duffy, Chief of Research and Development of CARB-X. "The Avails eAST diagnostic aims to provide phenotypic results within four hours from a positive blood culture which is critical in guiding antibiotic therapy decisions especially in multi-drug resistance infections."

"Currently, it can take days to identify which antibiotics would be most effective in treating a lethal bacterial infection in the bloodstream," said Oren Knopfmacher, CEO of Avails Medical. "The faster a clinician can get a clear picture of which antibiotic is most suited to kill the bacteria, the more likely the patient is to survive. We are honored to be recognized for our unique and transforming technology and are thrilled to join the CARB-X family. Fighting antibiotic resistance is our common goal and mission."

Contacts:

Avails Medical:
[email protected]

About Avails Medical Inc.
Avails Medical, Inc., a privately held company, was founded in 2013 to help fight one of today's biggest global health threats - antibiotic resistance. Founded by a team of Stanford University alums, the Avails all-electrical technology platform is designed to significantly reduce the amount of time required to obtain the reliable antibiotic susceptibility data required to enable accurate therapy decisions. Avails' electronic biosensor technology is designed to improve speed and accuracy in pathogen quantification and susceptibility testing directly from human specimens by eliminating crude, time-consuming culturing steps. www.availsmedical.com

About CARB-X
Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) is a global non-profit partnership dedicated to accelerating early development antibacterial R&D to address the rising global threat of drug-resistant bacteria. CARB-X is led by Boston University and funding is provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Wellcome Trust, a global charity based in the UK working to improve health globally, Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the UK Department of Health and Social Care's Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and with in-kind support from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). CARB-X is investing up to $480 million from 2016-2022 to support innovative antibiotics and other therapeutics, vaccines, and rapid diagnostics. CARB-X supports the world's largest and most innovative pipeline of preclinical products against drug-resistant infections. CARB-X is headquartered at Boston University School of Law. carb-x.org/.