EIC beneficiaries tackling antimicrobial resistance during World AMR Awareness Week

Antimicrobial resistance or AMR is one of the World Health Organization's declared critical priorities because it raises mortality risk and increases costs for health systems. For World AMR Awareness Week 2024 the European Innovation Council highlighted two EIC-funded initiatives that aim to address complementary parts of the AMR problem. One is a therapeutic strategy from the France based biopharmaceutical company Antabio. The other is a rapid diagnostic from the Netherlands based start up SoundCell. Both projects are positioned to reduce the clinical and economic burden of drug resistant infections if they pass the rigorous development and adoption hurdles that lie ahead.

Antabio and MEM-ANT3310: combining an inhibitor with meropenem

Antabio is advancing sbli-ant3310 a clinical stage programme that pairs the widely used carbapenem antibiotic meropenem with ANT3310 a serine-β-lactamase inhibitor. The project has EIC Accelerator backing and builds on other non dilutive awards Antabio has attracted from organisations such as the Wellcome Trust CARB X and ARPEGE. Company communications say preclinical work demonstrated strong efficacy against the three top priority bacterial pathogens identified by the WHO as major causes of severe hospital acquired infections.

Antabio reports completion of the first phase of a clinical study for MEM-ANT3310. According to the company ANT3310 was well tolerated across doses and no serious safety signals were reported. The stated development plan includes three clinical trials with a target of market approval by 2029. Company statements project that if ANT3310 is successfully licensed to a pharmaceutical partner it could capture substantial market sales with an estimate exceeding €10 billion by 2042.

Such revenue projections are routine in industry communications but should be regarded as speculative at this stage. Clinical tolerability in an early phase does not guarantee later stage efficacy and safety outcomes. For antibacterial agents particularly those intended to treat multidrug resistant infections the path to approval also depends on demonstrating superiority or added value over existing options obtaining regulatory acceptance of trial endpoints and securing commercial partners and reimbursement arrangements.

Antabio's CEO Marc Lemmonier framed the combination as offering broad coverage that could help high risk patients where multidrug resistant pathogens are suspected. The company points to a record of attracting non dilutive support which reduces immediate investor dilution but does not remove the need for larger commercial partnerships to scale late stage trials and manufacturing.

SoundCell and BE FAST: a graphene biosensor for one hour antibiotic susceptibility testing

The BE FAST project led by SoundCell aims to change how quickly clinicians can obtain antibiotic susceptibility testing or AST results. Conventional phenotypic AST methods typically take 24 hours or longer after a positive culture. That delay forces clinicians to use empiric broad spectrum antibiotics while awaiting results which can drive inappropriate use and selection of resistance.

SoundCell won the Innovator category of the Philips Innovation Award where judges assessed innovation scalability and potential impact. The company also reported progress on pilot production of assays and said multiple devices are ready for clinical validation and benchmarking in partner hospitals. SoundCell projects potential revenue of about €17 million and up to 60 jobs by 2030 in its scenarios.

The company highlights the technical complexity of bringing BE FAST to market. Its CEO Irek Roslon described integration challenges across chip fabrication microfluidics laser optics and advanced signal processing. He also emphasised placing devices in hospitals for clinical validation and benchmarking against existing laboratory standards.

These are realistic constraints. For diagnostics to be adopted hospitals require rigorous demonstration of clinical accuracy reproducibility and added value for patient management. They also need robust manufacturing quality control traceable supply chains and regulatory clearance under applicable frameworks such as the EU In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation or its equivalents. Finally the device must fit into laboratory workflows and laboratory information systems to be used at scale.

Pilot placements and testing plans

SoundCell has announced agreements to start pilots with clinical partners and to perform benchmarking studies. Company statements and public pitch transcripts mention starting pilots at major Dutch hospitals including Erasmus Medical Centre and another diagnostic partner in Delft. The pilots will be critical for collecting the comparative performance data needed for regulatory submissions and hospital procurement decisions.

Funding schemes and EIC roles

Both instruments are part of the European Innovation Council ecosystem that aims to de risk and accelerate strategic technologies across Europe. Non dilutive grants are useful to progress research and early clinical work while preserving equity. However they do not substitute for the large sums required for late stage clinical trials regulatory processes and commercial scale manufacture which typically require additional investment and industry partners.

Practical and policy level considerations

Both therapeutics and diagnostics are necessary to address AMR. New drugs extend treatment options but face a difficult economic environment. Antibiotics are usually short duration therapies and stewardship policies limit use which reduces commercial returns. That combination has deterred private R D investment and is why public funding and pull mechanisms matter.

Rapid diagnostics can change prescribing behaviour by reducing empiric use of broad spectrum agents and guiding de escalation. However diagnostics face different commercial barriers than drugs. Hospitals adopt diagnostics when they improve clinical decisions reduce costs or are reimbursed under clear payment rules. Demonstrating improved patient outcomes and cost effectiveness is therefore central.

Regulatory pathways are also crucial. For a new antibacterial or inhibitor regulators will require robust clinical evidence often from randomized trials or well designed comparative studies. For diagnostics in the EU manufacturers must comply with the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation and produce analytical and clinical performance data. Both routes incur significant time and cost.

What to watch next

Key milestones to follow include Antabio's completion of planned clinical trials and any licensing agreements with larger pharmaceutical partners. For SoundCell progress indicators are results from hospital benchmarking pilots CE or equivalent regulatory milestones and data on sensitivity specificity and time to answer in real world settings.

Both projects illustrate the type of public private collaboration the EU is trying to foster through the EIC but they also show the gap between promising laboratory or early clinical results and widespread clinical impact. Investors policymakers and hospital decision makers will be looking for clear evidence that these innovations improve patient outcomes reduce costs or otherwise change clinical practice in ways that justify the investment required to deploy them at scale.

World AMR Awareness Week is a timely reminder that solving resistance requires new therapeutics new diagnostics smarter use of existing medicines and systemic policy interventions to align incentives for public health and for companies developing these technologies.

Further information and sources

Project pages and funding details are available on the EIC and CORDIS portals. Antabio and SoundCell maintain public websites with project descriptions and press materials. Readers should treat company revenue or market size projections as forward looking statements that depend on multiple contingent outcomes.