PR83765

BANGALORE, India, WILMINGTON, Delaware and ADELAIDE, Australia, April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire＝KYODO JBN

Bugworks Research Inc,[https://bugworksresearch.com/] a global biopharma

start-up designing novel broad-spectrum antibiotics, announced the completion

of a $7.5M financing, led by University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC)[

https://www.ut-ec.co.jp/english/?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=april]

Japan and Global Brain Corporation (Global Brain) Japan

[https://globalbrains.com/en/?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=april],a

long with Acquipharma Holdings, South-Africa. The company has raised $19M till

date and has 3one4

Capital[https://3one4capital.com/?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=apri

l] as an existing investor.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1157251/Bugworks_Logo.jpg

This investment enables Bugworks to complete Phase 1 studies for its GYROX

series Intravenous drug candidate and advance an Oral lead towards clinical

development. Bugworks' drug candidate, a dual-target gyrase-topoisomerase

inhibitor [https://carb-x.org/portfolio/gallery/], supported by CARB-X

[https://carb-x.org/?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=apri] since

2017, is a novel broad-spectrum agent targeting critical bacterial infections

implicated in serious hospital, community and biothreat indications.

"UTEC led the Bugworks Series A in 2018, as we identified Antimicrobial

resistance (AMR) as one of the global issues of mankind, and facilitated

Bugworks' collaboration with Japanese ecosystem. Bugworks has thoroughly

impressed us with their scientific rigour, pre-clinical data, business

development progress and commitment to saving lives. We are now proud to

double-down our investment in Bugworks," said Tomotaka Goji, Managing Partner &

President, UTEC.

"As witnessed with COVID-19, infectious diseases are threatening human

existence. AMR is a serious issue and Global Brain regards this as a big unmet

medical need. We are proud to partner with Bugworks to bring highly

differentiated solutions in AMR to the market. We consider India to be an

important region, both from innovation and market perspective and are hence

accelerating our investment activity in India," said Yasuhiko Yurimoto,

Founder-CEO & General Partner Global Brain.

"This new financing is an endorsement of our team and differentiated AMR

assets, as we bring reputed global investors to aid our mission of pandemic

preparedness by defeating superbug infections," said Dr. Anand Anandkumar, CEO

of Bugworks.

Investors Profile

UTEC is a Tokyo-based early-stage VC with over $500M AUM with 11 successful

IPOs and 11 M&As. UTEC invests in seed/early-stage startups that solve global

issues of humankind using profound science and technology.

Global Brain is a VC firm based in Tokyo with offices in San Francisco, London,

Seoul, Singapore and Jakarta. With over $1.5B assets under management, Global

Brain has invested in 200+ startups selectively from seed/early to pre-IPO

startups and achieved 17 IPOs and 48 M&As.

Acquipharma Holdings is a South-Africa based life-science boutique investment

fund, who've invested in Bugworks since 2016.

Bugworks Company contact:

Leela Maitreyi

lmaitreyi@bugworksresearch.com

www.bugworksresearch.com

Source: Bugworks Research Inc.