Warp Drive Bio, Inc., a life sciences company developing therapeutics that exploit the molecules and mechanisms of nature, has reached a milestone in the antibiotic discovery program under its research collaboration with Sanofi. Sanofi will assume all preclinical and clinical development efforts for the novel aminoglycoside antibiotic candidates discovered by Warp Drive. This program is one of several natural product-based programs utilizing Warp Dive’s Genome Mining technology platform.

“Antibiotic resistance is a major global public health threat, and Warp Drive is committed to deploying our unique Genome Mining Platform to discover novel medicines that address this challenge,” said Laurence E. Reid, chief executive officer at Warp Drive Bio. “With the hand-off of this program to Sanofi, Warp Drive will now focus on our other programs, both anti-infectives and for other diseases, deploying our proprietary Genome Mining and SMART platforms. In particular, we continue to advance our RAS cancer program, which is also partnered with Sanofi.”

The companies entered the research collaboration in January 2016 focused on the discovery and development of novel aminoglycoside antibiotics to treat drug-resistant Gram-negative infections. Warp Drive is eligible to receive milestones and royalties.