Omniose, a St. Louis startup focused on developing vaccines to prevent bacterial infections, has snagged $3.6 million in federal funding to advance one of its vaccine candidates.
A $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be used by Omniose for research and development on a vaccine for Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacteria that can cause an array of infections.
For Omniose, the newly awarded grant continues its success of luring federal funds to advance its vaccine development efforts. It also comes as the startup plans to target investors to help fund the company. The $3.6 million grant brings Omniose’s total federal grant funding to $8.2 million since its launch in 2017.
Omniose, which rebranded earlier this year from VaxNewMo, has developed a technology platform it is using to create vaccines for Group B Streptococcus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Its research operations are based at the BioGenerator Labs in the BioSTL Building in the Cortex innovation district. It has a research team of four employees based in St. Louis led by co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Christian Harding.
In seeking to develop a vaccine for Klebsiella pneumoniae, Omniose is targeting a bacteria it says is responsible for a host of health care-related infections, including pneumonia, bloodstream infections, wound infections, surgical site infections and meningitis. It also can cause sepsis in newborns, the startup said.
With the fresh funding from the NIH, Omniose CEO Timothy Cooke said the firm will be able to focus research and development efforts on increasing the amount of strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae targeted in its vaccine, to broaden protection against the bacteria.
The new grant awarded to Omniose comes as it is eying private investment to grow the company, with Cooke saying it plans to raise a Series A funding round. He said the amount of capital raised by the startup will be determined through its discussions with investors. The vaccine startup’s financing efforts come amid a slowdown in the venture capital market, even as venture funds are flush with cash. Cooke said he’s confident the company will be able to find investment.
“The macro view can be challenging, but you just keep going and you just need to find that right investor and where they are in their fund cycle. We’re not deterred,” Cooke said.
