Entasis Therapeutics

About Entasis Therapeutics

Entasis Therapeutics operates as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a sharp focus on creating targeted antibacterial products. The company was established in 2015 as a spin-out from AstraZeneca, which also provided an initial $40 million in Series A funding. Its mission is to address the critical global health threat of multidrug-resistant pathogens by developing novel treatments for serious infections. The company's business model is centered on the discovery, development, and eventual commercialization of its pipeline candidates. This involves progressing assets through rigorous clinical trials to gain regulatory approval and then bringing them to market, targeting healthcare systems and patients with high unmet medical needs.

The company's core asset is its pathogen-targeted design platform, which was initially developed at AstraZeneca. This platform enables a more directed approach to designing compounds with improved efficacy against challenging Gram-negative bacteria. The pipeline includes several product candidates, most notably SUL-DUR (sulbactam-durlobactam), which targets infections caused by *Acinetobacter baumannii*, a pathogen deemed an urgent threat by the CDC. Other significant pipeline assets include zoliflodacin for *Neisseria gonorrhoeae*, ETX0282CPDP for Enterobacterales infections, and ETX0462 for other Gram-negative infections. In a key milestone, the Phase 3 trial for SUL-DUR successfully met all its primary and secondary endpoints.

After its inception, Entasis went public in 2018 with a $75 million IPO. Over the years, it secured multiple funding rounds, including a Series B for $50 million in 2016. In a significant development for the company, Innoviva, which had been a strategic investor since 2020, moved to acquire all remaining shares of Entasis in May 2022. The deal valued Entasis' equity at approximately $113 million and was finalized in July 2022, after which Entasis became a subsidiary of Innoviva. At the time of the acquisition, Manos Perros, who had a background as Head of Infection Research at AstraZeneca, was the CEO of Entasis.