Company was founded during fall 2010 with a focus on mAbs to treat infectious diseases.

Arsanis closed a Series A financing round with $10 million. Proceeds will be used to further preclinical work with mAbs against microbial infectious diseases. The financing involved equal contributions from OrbiMed Advisors, Polaris Venture Partners, and SV Life Sciences. Arsanis was founded last fall to concentrate on mAb development for the treatment of infectious diseases. The company will initiate its operations in Vienna.

“Managing infectious diseases is the only field of modern medicine where current approaches are failing,” explained Arsanis co-founder and CSO, Eszter Nagy. “The growing concern over broad resistance to conventional antibiotics demands new treatment modalities, and we believe that monoclonal antibodies will play a major role in the anti-infective arena in the next couple of years.”

The firm’s discovery activities are based on the unbiased selection of antigen targets to trigger several protective mechanisms that may necessitate the use of mAb cocktails as opposed to single antibodies. “The current funding will support several preclinical proof-of-concept programs that will be the basis for the company’s future development decisions,” Dr. Nagy adds.

Arsanis’ major focus is on life threatening infections that are caused by antibiotic resistant pathogens, occur in immune-compromised patients, or are associated with high mortality in spite of low rates of antibiotic resistance.

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