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Achaogen Awarded $24.7M Biodefense Contract by DTRA
Four-Year Contract Funds Preclinical Development of Therapies to Combat Anthrax

27 Oct 2006 - Achaogen, Inc., a developer of antibacterial compounds, has executed a four-year contract with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), an agency of the United States Department of Defense, worth up to $24.7 million dollars for the development of therapies to treat anthrax and other biothreat agents.
 
Under the terms of the agreement, the first year of which is fully funded, DTRA will fund the discovery of "achaogens," novel broad-spectrum small molecule therapeutics that inhibit proprietary bacterial targets, to treat resistant strains of biothreat agents such as B. anthracis (anthrax) or Y. pestis (plague), making the bacteria susceptible to existing fluoroquinolones and potentially to other classes of antibacterial drugs. Achaogen plans to pursue subsequent preclinical development activities culminating in an IND filing with the FDA.