GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co, Lundbeck and Partners Healthcare returned for a round that took Spero Therapeutics' overall funding to $63m.
US-based biopharmaceutical company Spero Therapeutics raised $30m in series B funding on Tuesday with support from a raft of corporates, all investors in its June 2015 series A round.
SROne, MRL Ventures, Lundbeckfond Ventures and Partners Innovation Fund, subsidiaries of pharmaceutical firms GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co and Lundbeck, and healthcare system Partners Healthcare respectively, were joined by conglomerate Kraft Group and venture firm Atlas Venture.
Spero is developing treatments that will combat ‘superbugs’, forms of bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics.
The company will use the series B funds to advance its Potentiator Platform, through which it aims to improve drug potency and existing anti-infectives. Money will also be directed to support its DHFR initiative, which targets bacteria, fungi and protists.
Ankit Mahadevia, president and CEO of Spero, said: “We are very privileged to have the strong support of our existing investors to close this series B financing, which will allow us to continue to advance the important work we are doing to combat the global public health threat of antibiotic resistance.”
All six of the series B investors took part in Spero’s $30m series A, closed just over a year after a $3m seed round backed by SROne, Partners Innovation Fund and Atlas Venture.
