QureTech Bio develops new first-in-class antibacterial agents to combat infectious diseases and the occurrence of antibiotic resistance. This is done either by a direct antimicrobial effect or by potentiating existing antibiotics and making them more effective without causing resistance.

Antibiotic resistance threatens modern healthcare

Antibiotic resistance is a global threat fully comparable to climate changes. Bacterial resistance causes around 33 000 deaths annually in the EU, with an immense economic burden. Without tools to control bacterial infections, modern health care will collapse. Thus, patients undergoing cancer treatment and advanced surgery susceptible to infections will be difficult or impossible to treat. Therefore, we believe that there is a need to develop new treatment regimens and to lower the use of classical antibiotics in order to spare them for acute and troublesome infections.

A recent analysis of the global clinical antibacterial pipeline identified 42 new antibiotics in development. The clinical pipeline is still dominated by derivatives of established classes and new drugs without pre-existing cross-resistance are limited and urgently needed.

Our solution

QureTech Bio has developed new antibacterial agents containing several distinct classes of small molecules that targets different infectious diseases. The compounds are novel small molecules from a well-developed chemical platform that allow all necessary fine tuning of properties important for drug development. The substances can either function as traditional antibiotics, enhance the effect of existing antibiotics or disarm bacteria instead of killing them. QureTech Bio is currently working on three projects aimed at treating tuberculosis, chlamydia and infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Gram-positive bacteria.

  • Healthcare associated infections
    New chemical entities (GmPcides) with potential to be used as efficient monotherapy and ability to improve effect of front-line antibiotics such as vancomycin and gentamicin have been developed. The lead compounds are bactericidal to Gram-positive bacteria and have demonstrated effects in difficult-to-treat in vivo models of urinary tract infection and skin and soft tissue infection.
  • Tuberculosis
    The lead compounds can block development of drug resistance and reverse resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis to the frontline antibiotic product isoniazid. Restoring the efficacy of isoniazid for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis provides a great advantage as it offers an alternative to the demanding and toxic drugs currently used.

About the company

The company’s development programs are based on research from groups based at Umeå University, Sweden, and Washington University, St Louis, USA. QureTech Bio is currently focusing on the lead program, GmPcides for healthcare associated infections, and the company’s vision is to contribute to more effective treatments for infectious diseases. We are also seeking collaboration partners for further development of the chlamydia and tuberculosis projects.

Read more at QureTech Bio’s web.

UBI Incubation Phase

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Contact Information

Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI)<br /> Tvistevägen 48<br /> 907 36 Umeå, Sweden
Helén Fält
CEO
Fredrik Almqvist
Research director, Co-founder
Sven Bergström
Co-founder
Jörgen Johansson
Co-founder
Annica Rönnbäck
COO
Affiliations
Department of Chemistry, Umeå University
Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University