Category: Press Releases

Princeton, NJ, November 19, 2024 – ArrePath, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company focused on applying deep phenotypic insights and machine learning to the discovery of new anti-infectives, today announced the appointment of Kevin Krause as President and Chief Executive. Mr. Krause brings more than 25 years of experience in research, clinical development, commercialization, and corporate development in the biotech industry, as the company continues to expand its pipeline of internally discovered assets.

Mr. Krause most recently served as the Chief Strategy Officer of AN2 Therapeutics, Inc., a company applying boron chemistry to the discovery and development of novel therapies. In this role, he was the Project Team leader for AN2’s epetraborole Phase 2/3 NTM lung disease program, while overseeing various departments including Project Management, Clinical Operations, Regulatory, Quality, Medical Writing, and Corporate Development. Earlier in his career, he held various positions in R&D leadership and Corporate Business Development at Achaogen, Cerexa, and Theravance BioPharma, where he was instrumental in the clinical development and/or approval of Zemdri® (plazomicin), Avycaz® (ceftazidime-avibactam), Vibativ® (telavancin), Teflaro® (ceftaroline fosamil), Colobreathe® (inhaled colistin) and Quinsair® (inhaled levofloxacin).

Mr. Krause received an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business and a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from San Francisco State University.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kevin as the new Chief Executive Officer of ArrePath”, said co-founder Dr. Zemer Gitai, on behalf of the company’s Board of Directors. “Thanks to his exceptional track record of visionary leadership, we are confident that Kevin will use the team’s momentum to advance their lead program to the clinic and unlock new opportunities for growth. This is an exciting new chapter for ArrePath and we look forward to the positive impact Kevin will bring to the company and its stakeholders.”

“I am honored to join ArrePath, which has made tremendous progress on the application of its proprietary AI/ML platform to discover antibacterials with novel mechanisms of action,” said Mr. Krause. “I look forward to working with the team to advance our lead program and to expand our existing portfolio.”

About ArrePath

ArrePath was founded with the mission to discover new and differentiated classes of anti-infectives to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the application of state-of-the-art technologies and novel strategies. We apply world-class science and innovation in imaging and AI/ML technologies to identify and develop novel drugs to address global health issues. Our advanced machine learning (ML) drug discovery platform enables a rapid and efficient identification of new drug classes with desired activity profiles and clinical utility, coupled with a deep understanding of mechanism of action at the outset of the discovery process. 

For more information on ArrePath’s innovative work and mission, please visit www.arrepath.com.

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Reena Pagnoni
ArrePath
[email protected]
Phone: 609.423.1572

Princeton, NJ, November 19, 2024 – ArrePath, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company focused on applying deep phenotypic insights and machine learning to the discovery of new anti-infectives, today announced that it has been awarded a £1 million non-dilutive grant from PACE (Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy) in support of its efforts to develop a new class of antibiotics designed to address multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections, a growing global health threat.

Antimicrobial resistance renders standard antibiotic treatments ineffective, transforming some common infections into severe, life-threatening conditions. This resistance exacerbates the complexity and cost of medical care, jeopardizes immunocompromised patients, poses a significant public health crisis, and causes economic challenges worldwide.

To address the critical need for more effective treatment of microbial infections, ArrePath has leveraged its proprietary AI/ML platform to identify a unique class of small molecules with a mechanism of action distinct from current antibiotics. An antibiotic derived from these compounds would be active against a significant number of MDR infections, in particular those caused by E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and related species.

Supported by this substantial funding from PACE, ArrePath will advance its lead program towards investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies with a potential first clinical indication of complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) caused by MDR organisms. A dual delivery system—both intravenous and oral—will offer flexible treatment options across various healthcare settings.

“We are incredibly honored to have received this competitive award from PACE, which recognizes the potential of our innovative lead program powered by our proprietary AI/ML platform,” said Alita Miller, Ph.D., ArrePath Chief Scientific Officer. “This critical funding will enable ArrePath to continue developing a much-needed new class of antibiotics to combat multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections. We are confident that our novel approach will be instrumental in addressing the escalating AMR crisis.”

Clive Mason, Programme Director, PACE, said: “We are delighted to welcome ArrePath into the PACE project portfolio. We congratulate them on their success after a highly competitive funding call seeking novel, early-stage antimicrobial therapeutics to tackle AMR. In addition to funding, we look forward to supporting them through access to a network of potential partners, advisors, mentors, and enabling technologies and capabilities.”

About PACE
PACE is a new and comprehensive approach to tackling one of the world’s most complex health challenges: antimicrobial resistance (AMR). PACE works with the AMR community and offers funding, support, and advice to help progress early-stage antimicrobial drug and diagnostic projects with greater speed and confidence – giving the best AMR innovations the greatest chance of success.

PACE selects, invests in and supports projects that address the world’s most threatening pathogens. In doing so, it will deliver innovations for onward development and investment, moving them closer to clinical trials. Working together with the brightest and best, PACE will help tackle this rising threat to global health.

PACE was founded in 2023 by LifeArc, Innovate UK and Medicines Discovery Catapult, with a £30 million programme of funding and support to be deployed over five years.

About ArrePath

ArrePath was founded with the mission to discover new and differentiated classes of anti-infectives to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the application of state-of-the-art technologies and novel strategies. We apply world-class science and innovation in imaging and AI/ML technologies to identify and develop novel drugs to address global health issues. Our advanced machine learning (ML) drug discovery platform enables a rapid and efficient identification of new drug classes with desired activity profiles and clinical utility, coupled with a deep understanding of mechanism of action at the outset of the discovery process. 

For more information on ArrePath’s innovative work and mission, please visit http://www.arrepath.com/.

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Reena Pagnoni
ArrePath
[email protected]
Phone: 609.423.1572

Princeton, NJ – November 18, 2022 – ArrePath today announced that it has appointed two new members to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB):  Connor Coley, PhD, Henri Slezynger (1957) Career Development Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering at MIT, and Paul Hergenrother, PhD, Kenneth L. Rinehart Jr. Endowed Chair in Natural Products Chemistry, and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“ArrePath is pioneering a highly innovative approach to the discovery of anti-infectives with new mechanisms of action to address antimicrobial resistance that integrates machine learning and imaging technologies into the drug discovery process,” said Lloyd Payne, PhD, ArrePath’s CEO. “Professors Coley and Hergenrother together bring outstanding, visionary leadership in the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in drug discovery and innovative strategies for the design of drugs to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria, respectively. We look forward to many contributions from them as we continue to build out our platform and advance our initial compounds.”

Professors Coley and Hergenrother will join other members of the company’s distinguished SAB, including, Zemer Gitai, PhD, ArrePath’s scientific founder, SAB Chair, and Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology at Princeton University; Barbara Engelhardt, PhD, Professor of Computational Biology at Stanford University; and Todd A. Black, PhD, Senior Director of Biology for the Global Alliance of TB Drug Development.

Connor’s research focuses on computational and experimental techniques to enable autonomous molecular discovery at the intersection of chemistry, data science, machine learning, with an emphasis on small molecule drug discovery. Key research areas in his laboratory include the design of new neural models for representation learning on molecules, data-driven synthesis planning, in silico strategies for predicting the outcomes of organic reactions, model-guided Bayesian optimization, and de novo molecular generation. Connor is a recipient of C&EN’s “Talented Twelve” award, Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” for Healthcare, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Caltech and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT.

Paul’s research interests span the design, synthesis, and evaluation of organic molecules with novel biological properties, including novel anticancer and antibacterial compounds where his group has developed predictive guidelines for compound accumulation in Gram-negative pathogens; chemical biology and synthetic organic chemistry.  His compound discovery work encompasses a variety of approaches, including natural product synthesis, synthesis of complex-and-diverse compounds, structure-based design, and high-throughput screening. Paul’s research has been recognized through many awards, including the 2016 UCB-Ehrlich Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry, the 2017 ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, and the Eli Lilly Award for Medicinal Chemistry. In 2020, he was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Paul received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and obtained his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin.

About ArrePath

ArrePath is an anti-infective drug discovery company addressing the global health challenge of drug resistant infections. The company’s proprietary machine learning (ML)-based platform enables the rapid and efficient identification of anti-infective agents with new mechanisms of action at the outset of the discovery process, through a deep understanding and analysis of cell and pathogen behavior. The platform’s proof-of-concept has been demonstrated in studies published in Cell by ArrePath’s scientific founder, Zemer Gitai, Ph.D., Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology at Princeton University. The company is funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Insight Partners, Innospark Ventures, Viva BioInnovator, Arimed Capital, PTX Capital, and Nor’easter Ventures. Learn more at www.arrepath.com and follow us on Twitter @ArrePath.

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Contact:
Robert Gottlieb
RMG Associates, LLC
[email protected]

Princeton, NJ, March 24, 2022 – ArrePath today announced the appointment of Michael Dudley, PharmD, as Chairman of the Company’s Board of Directors.

“Dr. Dudley has an outstanding record of research, development and business leadership in anti-infectives in both established and emerging companies,” said Lloyd Payne, PhD, ArrePath’s President and CEO. “We look forward to his guidance and insights on our Board as we advance our machine-learning-based platform for the discovery of new and differentiated classes of anti-infectives.”

Dr. Dudley has more than 30 years of experience in anti-infective R&D and commercialization. During his career, Dr. Dudley has overseen R&D and regulatory approval of multiple antibiotic products, including the discovery and development of a new chemical class of beta-lactamase inhibitors, using the element boron, that resulted in the first FDA-approved product in this class.  He has also led negotiations for over $200 million in multiple public-private partnerships to advance the research and development of antimicrobial agents worldwide.

“There is a critical need for new classes of antibiotics for drug resistant infections,” said Dr. Dudley. “ArrePath is building an exceptional team and pursuing a highly innovative strategy using modern tools and approaches to antimicrobial drug discovery. I welcome the opportunity to work with the ArrePath team and its Board.”

Dr. Dudley is currently President and CEO of Qpex Biopharma, a clinical stage company he has led since its founding and Series A financing in 2018 as a spin-out from The Medicines Company (MDCO). He had joined MDCO following its acquisition of Rempex in 2013, and he remained as CSO and co-leader of the Infectious Disease Business Unit as it developed and launched 3 antibiotic products. Before Rempex/MDCO, he held leadership positions of increasing responsibility at the biotech companies Mpex, Diversa, and Microcide. Prior to his career in industry, he held academic appointments at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and Brown University School of Medicine and practiced in patient care and antibiotic stewardship. He has published over 400 scientific papers/book chapters/presentations on the evaluation and clinical use of anti-infectives. He completed undergraduate work at Pepperdine University, his PharmD and residency at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Hartford Hospital.

About ArrePath
ArrePath is an anti-infective drug discovery company addressing the global health challenge of drug resistant infections. The company’s proprietary machine learning (ML)-based platform enables the rapid and efficient identification of anti-infective agents with new mechanisms of action at the outset of the discovery process, through a deep understanding and analysis of pathogen behavior. The platform’s proof-of-concept has been demonstrated in studies published in Cell by ArrePath’s scientific founder, Zemer Gitai, Ph.D., Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology at Princeton University. The company is funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Insight Partners, Innospark Ventures, Viva BioInnovator, Arimed Capital, PTX Capital, and Nor’easter Ventures. Learn more at www.arrepath.com and follow us on Twitter @ArrePath.

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Contact:
Robert Gottlieb
RMG Associates, LLC
[email protected]

Dr. Lloyd Payne Named President and CEO

Princeton, NJ, March 3, 2022 – ArrePath, an anti-infective drug discovery company addressing the global health challenge of drug resistant infections, announced today that it has raised $20 million in seed financing to advance its proprietary, machine learning (ML)-based platform for the discovery of new classes of anti-infectives to overcome antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Insight Partners, and Innospark Ventures co-led the financing, which also included Viva BioInnovator, Arimed Capital, PTX Capital, and Nor’easter Ventures.

ArrePath also announced that Dr. Lloyd Payne has been named President and CEO. Dr. Payne, who serves on the Novo REPAIR Impact Fund Scientific Selection Board and the AMR Action Fund Scientific Advisory Board, brings more than 25 years of scientific and business leadership in the discovery and development of anti-infectives. Prior to joining ArrePath, Dr. Payne served at Evotec, as Executive Vice President, Head of Anti-infectives, where he led the company’s anti-infective discovery and translational microbiology businesses. Previously, he founded Euprotec, a life sciences company focused on anti-infective drug discovery and development and served as its CEO until its acquisition by Evotec.

ArrePath is an anti-infective drug discovery company addressing the global health challenge of drug resistant infections, which result in at least 1.27 million deaths, annually (according to recent analysis of data from 2019 published in The Lancet, The GRAM Report). New classes of antibiotics that more effectively treat drug resistant infections and overcome antimicrobial resistance are urgently needed. ArrePath’s approach leverages a novel technology platform to enable the discovery and development of new and differentiated antibiotics by decoding the complex behavior of bacteria when exposed to new chemical entities (known as ‘bacterial autopsies’), leading to the efficient elucidation of biological mechanisms of action. Utilizing proprietary machine learning and imaging technologies, ArrePath’s platform enables an unprecedented ability to identify, optimize, and rapidly develop new classes of anti-infectives with differentiated mechanisms of action compared to those exhibited by existing drugs.

“The Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund is proud to cofound ArrePath with Dr. Zemer Gitai and co-lead the seed series investment to accelerate development of the company’s potentially transformative Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning-based drug discovery platform. Additionally, we are delighted that Dr. Payne, a highly experienced executive and leader in anti-infective drug discovery and development, has joined ArrePath as President and CEO,” said Fei Shen, Ph.D., Managing Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund USA. “Antimicrobial resistance is an area with critical unmet medical need and is one of the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund’s investment focuses globally. We are committed to playing a key role in the global ecosystem to solve the commercial challenges the area faces and supporting the next generation of anti-infective medicines,” added Dr. Shen.

“I am delighted to join ArrePath and work with such a talented team to address the central challenge of antimicrobial resistance and further develop the company’s innovative platform technology,” said Dr. Lloyd Payne, ArrePath’s President and CEO. “This financing is a strong vote of confidence, by a global investment syndicate, in our platform and its enormous potential in anti-infective drug discovery. The funding will enable the advancement of our initial leads and expansion of our discovery efforts, as well as the enhancement of our imaging platform and the application of machine learning in the discovery of new drugs to address critical global health challenges.

Dr. Gitai, Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology at Princeton University and colleagues published proof-of-concept for the approach in the journal Cell in June 2020. The research describes the identification of a compound with a novel dual mechanism of action against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and the platform has since identified additional compounds with novel mechanisms. A Princeton University spin-out, the company has an exclusive option from the university to license intellectual property related to the platform technology, and novel compounds generated through its application.

The worldwide clinical need for new antibiotics that overcome antimicrobial resistance is significant. Analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shown that, in the U.S. alone, drug resistant infections result in at least 35,000 deaths annually. It has been estimated that patients spend an aggregate of eight million additional days in the hospital due to drug resistant infections and cost the U.S. healthcare system between $21 billion and $34 billion. A report by the World Health Organization previously estimated that 750,000 people die each year from resistant infections worldwide but this number has recently been updated. The Lancet report (The GRAM Report), published online, in January 2022, analyzed the global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019 and found “at least 1.27 million deaths per year are directly attributable to AMR.” The UK-commissioned O’Neill Review estimates that “unless action is taken, the burden of deaths from AMR could balloon to 10 million lives each year by 2050, at a cumulative cost to global economic output of 100 trillion USD.”

About Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund

Created in 2010, the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) invests in ground-breaking therapeutics-focused biotechnology companies to drive innovation in biomedical research. BIVF is searching for significant enhancements in patient care through pioneering science and its clinical translation by building long-term relationships with scientists and entrepreneurs. BIVF’s focus is to target unprecedented therapeutic concepts addressing high medical needs in immuno-oncology, regenerative medicine, infectious diseases, and digital health. These may include novel platform technologies to address so far undruggable targets, new generation vaccines and/or new biological entities. BIVF takes an active role with its portfolio companies – delivering significant added value through its own extensive drug discovery, scientific and managerial expertise.  BIVF has a fund volume of 300 million euros and currently supervises a portfolio of more than 40 companies. For more information, please visit www.boehringer-ingelheim-venture.com

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

About Innospark Ventures

Innospark Ventures is a Boston-based early-stage venture fund investing in the AI-powered economy. We believe that computational intelligence (AI) will play an outsized role in the years to come, impacting businesses and industries alike. With decades of entrepreneurial experience across several AI startups, and deep investment expertise across stages, we are thoughtful in our approach to investing. We like foundational, deeply impactful ideas.  We view our investments as the beginning of a partnership versus the culmination of a diligence process. Our unique no-LP model allows for patient, founder-friendly, capital. Since the fall of 2018, Innospark has made 20+ investments across the healthcare, life sciences, B2B enterprise, cybersecurity, and education sectors. We are excited to partner with the next generation of founders and can be reached at: [email protected]

About ArrePath

ArrePath is an anti-infective drug discovery company addressing the global health challenge of drug resistant infections. The company’s proprietary machine learning (ML)-based platform enables the rapid and efficient identification of anti-infective agents with new mechanisms of action at the outset of the discovery process, through a deep understanding and analysis of pathogen behavior. The platform’s proof-of-concept has been demonstrated in studies published in Cell by ArrePath’s scientific founder, Zemer Gitai, Ph.D., Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology at Princeton University. The company is funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Insight Partners, Innospark Ventures, Viva BioInnovator, Arimed Capital, PTX Capital, and Nor’easter Ventures. Learn more at www.arrepath.com and follow us on Twitter @ArrePath.

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Contact:

Robert Gottlieb
RMG Associates, LLC
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 857-891-9091