16 January 2019 - - US-based biopharmaceutical company Bioharmony Therapeutics, Inc has entered into a Collaborative Research and Licensing Agreement with German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim to develop bacteriophage lysins for the treatment of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter infections, the company said.

multidrug resistant Acinetobacter infections are a frequent cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia and life-threatening blood or wound infections.

Bioharmony licensed this technology from the Rockefeller University. The discoveries are from the laboratory of Vincent A. Fischetti, Ph.D., a faculty member at The Rockefeller University.

Recently, the World Health Organization listed drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii to be a critical priority pathogen, causing around 9% of all bacterial infections in intensive care worldwide against which there are few treatment options available.

Financial terms are not disclosed.

Infectious diseases are amongst the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and continue to be a major health challenge for medicine. Increasing levels of resistance threaten the effectiveness of many existing antimicrobial drugs.

Lysins are bacteriophage-derived enzymes that cleave the essential bonds in the bacterial cell wall leading to rapid killing of the target bacteria.

As a new antimicrobial class, they could enable the development of urgently needed treatment options for MDR infections.

The partnership is part of Boehringer Ingelheim's Research Beyond Borders function, which explores emerging science and technology beyond the company's core areas of focus. RBB also focuses on gene therapy, regenerative medicine, immune-infection, and the role of the microbiome in human health and disease.

Bioharmony Therapeutics, Inc. is an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class lysin-based antimicrobial therapeutics for patients with multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections.

In addition to the Acinetobacter lysin, Bioharmony's portfolio includes a proprietary line-up of lysins for the treatment for pneumonia, skin, urinary tract and bloodstream infections caused by Gram-negative bacterial infections such as E.coli, Klebsiella and others.