Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund Launches Global Call for New Investment Proposals to Fight AMR

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund announced it has opened a new investment proposal round to life sciences companies developing new treatments to combat anti-microbial resistance. The window for submissions will be open from 8 June to 31 July 2020.

Companies are invited to submit a non-confidential proposal, which will be presented to the fund's Scientific Selection Board and successful projects will be selected later in the year.

REPAIR's commitment to funding the development of novel antibiotics will provide companies with the essential support to accelerate the development of early stage novel antibiotics towards the clinic to combat the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria.

Aleks Engel, Partner at Novo Holdings and Director of the REPAIR Impact Fund, said: "COVID-19 has shone a light on the devastating impact of infectious disease on populations around the world. AMR is killing at least 700,000 people per year, which is very similar to COVID-19, which has killed about 360,000 people in the first half of 2020. The difference is that AMR will kill more than 700,000 people next year and then more the following year and the year after, quickly approaching the millions. Deaths from COVID should hopefully be drastically reduced next year.

"Novo Holdings is proud to financially and strategically support the development of high-quality projects, which will address the vast unmet need of antimicrobial resistance, for which other private funding has decreased at an alarming rate since we launched REPAIR."

This is the fifth call for investment proposals since the REPAIR Impact Fund was set up in 2018. The fund has screened more than 180 investment proposals and invested in eight companies based in Europe and USA, all of which show great diversity of approaches to the scientific challenge of antimicrobial resistance. REPAIR has a total investment budget of EUR 135 million.

The Fund will continue to initially invest only in projects that are between lead optimization and Phase 1 clinical trials; however, the REPAIR Impact Fund may continue to support its portfolio companies as they advance into Phase 2.

More information on the investment selection process can be found here: https://www.repair-impact-fund.com/investment-process/

About the REPAIR Impact Fund

The Fund invests in start-ups, early-stage companies and corporate spin-outs in Europe and the United States. It gives priority to first-in-class therapies, covering small molecules, biologics and new modalities, from the early stage of drug development (lead optimization) to the early stages of clinical development (Phase 1). It can invest as the sole investor or in a syndicate, with investments ranging from EUR 1 million to EUR 12 million.

The projects are selected through an investment process with support of a highly qualified Scientific Selection Board, comprising 10 world-class experts. For more information about members of the Scientific Selection Board, see www.repair-impact-fund.com/people.

The Fund focuses on priority pathogens as defined by the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a catalogue of 18 families of bacterial and fungal pathogens that pose the greatest threat to human health. For more details about the investment process, see www.repair-impact-fund.com/investment-process.

REPAIR is an acronym: Replenishing and Enabling the Pipeline for Anti-Infective Resistance.

About Novo Holdings

Novo Seeds is the early stage investment arm of Novo Holdings. Novo Holdings A/S is a Danish private limited liability company wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. It is the holding company of the Novo Group, comprising Novo Nordisk A/S, Novozymes A/S and NNIT A/S, and manages the Foundation's assets.

In addition to being the major shareholder in the Novo Group companies, Novo Holdings provides seed and venture capital to development-stage companies, takes significant ownership positions in well-established companies within life science and manages a broad portfolio of financial assets.

It is the vision of Novo Holdings to be recognized as a world-leading life science investor with a focus on creating long-term value. Read more at www.novoholdings.dk.

SOURCE Novo Holdings