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HHS, Wellcome Commit $370M in New Funding for CARB-X

NEW YORK — CARB-X said on Thursday that it will receive up to an additional $370 million from the US Department of Health and Human Services and charitable foundation Wellcome to continue funding drug-resistant bacteria research, including the development of diagnostics.

According to CARB-X — short for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Accelerator — HHS's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has committed $20 million in initial funding and up to $300 million in total over the next 10 years. Wellcome, meanwhile, will provide up to $70 million over the next three years.

The NIH will provide support in the form of in-kind services through access to a suite of preclinical services for product development, CARB-X noted.

Antimicrobial resistance "is a top-tier global killer," CARB-X Executive Director Kevin Outterson said in a statement. "With today's funding announcements, CARB-X will continue to invest to support early-stage research and development for new antibacterial therapies, preventatives, and diagnostics."

CARB-X, based out of Boston University School of Law, was founded in 2016 with $355 million from BARDA and Wellcome to advance innovative antibiotics and other therapeutics, vaccines, rapid diagnostics, and devices to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. Since then, it has received over $500 million and invested $361 million to support the development of 92 projects in 12 countries, with 11 drug candidates progressing into clinical trials and four diagnostics entering the validation and verification stage.