Accelerate NY Seed Fund Awards Bioharmony Therapeutics $100,000 to Develop a Lysin-based Treatment for Skin Infections Caused by Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumanii

December 18, 2017 New York, New York. Accelerate NY Seed Fund (ANY) and Bioharmony Therapeutics (Bioharmony) announces today an investment by ANY in Bioharmony, a New York-based company developing first-in-class antimicrobials against multidrug resistant bacterial infections. These antimicrobials, called lysins, are enzymes that digest the cell wall of bacteria leading to rapid cell death. ANY invested $100,000 in the company’s seed round.

“The development of lysins for the treatment of multi-drug resistant Gram-negative infections is an innovative and promising approach. If successful, these lysins can be a game-changer in the fight against antibiotic resistance for which there are few or no cures,” said Peter Donnelly, Managing Director of ANY.

“We are very grateful to ANY for their confidence in Bioharmony,” commented Chandrabali Ghose, Ph.D, founder and CEO of Bioharmony Therapeutics. “Antibiotic resistance is a global health problem that needs to be addressed urgently. We hope that our novel approach of developing lysins will have a positive impact in the fight against antibiotic resistance. With the support from ANY, we look forward to advancing BH01, a topical lysin specific for Acinetobacter skin infections, into preclinical development.”

The company is focused on developing lysin-based therapeutics especially for multidrug resistant gram-negative bacteria such as Acinetobacter, Klebsiella and E.coli that have high rates of mortality. The World Health Organization considers Acinetobacter baumannii to be a critical priority pathogen against which there are few treatment options available. In addition to targeting such infections when the patients become septic, Bioharmony’s technology is designed to control the infection locally either on the skin, in the lungs or in the bladder.

“Bioharmony is one of Xontogeny’s portfolio companies and we are delighted with its progress. ANY’s seed support provides further validation for the company’s focus to develop first-in-class antimicrobials. Lysins represent a unique class of antimicrobials that are well differentiated from current antimicrobial products against infections caused by Acinetobacter in particular, and have the potential to advance treatment options against multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in general,” commented Chris Garabedian, Chairman of the Board of Bioharmony and CEO of Xontogeny.

About Bioharmony Therapeutics, Inc.
Bioharmony Therapeutics, Inc. is an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class lysin-based antimicrobial therapeutics for patients with multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections. Bioharmony Therapeutic’s lead candidate, BH-01, is a topical lysin-based antimicrobial peptide that specifically targets Acinetobacter and is being developed to treat skin infections in burn patients. Bioharmony’s portfolio includes a robust line-up of lysin-based antimicrobials that target the deadliest infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria. For more information, please visit https://www.bioharmonytherapeutics.com, contact