Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed drugs, and have saved millions of lives since they were introduced to patients many decades ago. However, they are frequently overused and can be improperly prescribed. As a result, bacteria that were once easy to treat with antibiotics are now changing and becoming resistant to them. Some experts feel we have entered a post‐antibiotic era where common infections are becoming untreatable.
Atterx is developing novel products that prevent and treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections:
Multi-drug resistant infections have been declared national threats by both the US and the EU. The GAIN Act of 2012 has introduced market incentives for development of new antibiotics and the FDA has been tasked with expediting their approval.
As a specialty pharmaceutical company, Atterx has received initial funding to develop proprietary therapies for the prevention and treatment of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections. Atterx is following a proven clinical strategy, with key milestone targets in place. We bring an experienced management team to this important work with extensive expertise in all aspects of the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Watt has been with Atterx since 2006. Previous to joining Atterx, he held senior management positions as Director of Cell Biology & Transgenesis at Infigen, Inc. and as Director of Government Programs at OpGen, Inc. He received a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of Guelph, Canada followed by a post-doctoral position at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Dr. Watt has nearly 20 years of experience in the development of novel biologics/pharmaceuticals for various diseases/infections.
Dr. Ferstenberg is a seasoned biopharmaceutical serial entrepreneur with expertise in clinical development of products for anti-cancer, immunology and infectious disease applications, spanning new drugs, vaccines, targeted immunotherapies, stem cells and biotech innovations. Ms. Ferstenberg is the founding CEO for Collective Therapeutics, Inc., a venture backed company that licensed a selective monoclonal antibody for the treatment of autoimmunity from Duke University and three other co-licensing institutions.
Mr. Millar has over 20 years of financial and business expertise plus extensive management and business development experience as a senior executive with both large and earlier stage companies. As founder of The Vine Group, a business advisory group providing strategic planning, valuation analysis and financing assistance to growing businesses, Mr. Millar has advised, managed or led over 100 transactions with an aggregate value of over $1 billion.
Mr. Evans, of Rosetta Partners, a biotechnology investment firm, has raised the majority of equity funding for Atterx over the last eight years. He has been active as an investor in hedge funds and young start-up companies, and prior to that, traded options and commodities on the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Board Options Exchange for 20 years. He was an early partner in the Chicago Research and Trading Group.
Mr. McCallum founded JAM Capital Partners with Carl Cummings in 2010 and has provided strategic advice to high net worth families in the Investment Management Division of Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. McCallum has also served as a Legislative Aide to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Honorable Newt Gingrich, in Washington, DC. from 1993 until 1996.