Spero Therapeutics, Inc. announced that it received $39,994,551.64 in funding from Pfizer Inc. The company entered into a securities purchase agreement with Pfizer for a private placement of common shares. The placement consisted of 2,362,348 common shares sold at $16.93 per share for gross proceeds of $39,994,551.64. The transaction closed on June 30, 2021 and was completed as part of Pfizer's Breakthrough Growth Initiative. The funding was provided by a single new investor and was made pursuant to an exemption under Regulation D. No additional operational, product, or financial details were provided in the announcement. Spero Therapeutics is a global multi-asset clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for drug-resistant bacterial infections. The company is advancing two lead programs in parallel: SPR741 (Potentiator), a platform approach for combination therapy against multi-drug resistant gram-negative infections, and SPR994, a novel oral agent with broad in vitro activity. Spero also maintains a preclinical pipeline including SPR720 for nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) lung disease and other discovery antimicrobials. Led by Ankit Mahadevia, M.D., the company intends to use recent financing to move SPR994 into the clinic and advance the Potentiator program into later-stage clinical trials. Spero’s core product strategy centers on addressing serious, often drug-resistant infections such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and Acinetobacter baumannii. The company is based in Cambridge, Mass. Spero Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of novel treatments for bacterial infections based on its Potentiator therapeutic platform. The company’s programs target Gram‑negative and Gram‑positive bacteria and extend to fungi and protists. Its DHFR program aims to expand a novel antifolate’s antibacterial spectrum to treat trimethoprim‑resistant isolates, including key Gram‑negative pathogens. Led by President and CEO Ankit Mahadevia, M.D., Spero plans to use newly raised funds to advance the Potentiator platform and support progression of the DHFR program. The company reported a $30M Series B financing to fund these development efforts. No operating metrics or prior round details were provided in the article. Spero Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for bacterial infections. Led by co-founder and CEO Ankit Mahadevia, M.D., its core programs include a Potentiator franchise aimed at increasing the potency of existing antibiotics against multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria and an MvfR inhibitor program targeting virulence and persistence pathways. The Potentiator franchise consists of development-candidate proprietary molecules designed to enable access of antibacterial agents across the Gram-negative outer membrane and to expand the utility of agents such as macrolides and meropenem. Spero is also developing an anti-virulence program in partnership with Roche that targets pathways involved in virulence and persistence. Financially, the company completed a $30 million Series A and intends to use proceeds to advance the Potentiator franchise into clinical development by 2016, progress the anti-virulence program toward an IND submission, and develop additional pipeline programs. Board additions tied to the financing include Lundbeckfond Ventures’ Casper Breum and Merck’s Dr. Josh Resnick. Spero Therapeutics is developing small-molecule drug candidates that target pathways involved in bacterial virulence and persistence to treat acute gram-negative infections and prevent chronic, antibiotic-tolerant states. Its lead program, based on research by Laurence Rahme at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, aims to render pathogens susceptible to immune clearance and/or traditional antibiotics. The company describes its approach as directly disarming pathogens to limit morbidity and resistance development while blocking persistence mechanisms. Spero surfaced with a $3 million Series A and has an R&D partnership with Roche, which is providing non-dilutive funding and an option to acquire the lead program at the IND-application phase. Initial investors in the company include Atlas Venture, Partners Innovation Fund, and SR One. Ankit Mahadevia of Atlas Venture serves as Spero’s acting president.

Total raised

$155M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jun 2021