BRIEF—smartbax raises 4.7 million euros for new antibiotic programs

German biotech smartbax has raised 4.7 million euros ($5 million) in a pre-series A round led by Anobis Asset and Bayern Kapital. UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators, HTGF, and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund also joined. A second closing remains open to new investors.

Funds will advance the firm’s small-molecule antibiotics pipeline against drug-resistant bacteria. Its lead inhibitor targets a new step in lipopolysaccharide synthesis in Gram-negative bacteria and has shown in vivo proof of concept.

smartbax is also developing enzyme activators that make bacteria self-digest. These candidates eliminate biofilms and show no resistance so far.