Proteon Pharmaceuticals received €21 million ($24.6 million) investment towards commercializing bacteriophage-based products for livestock and aquaculture. This investment was led by Nutreco, an animal health firm, Aqua-Spark, an aquaculture firm, and PFR Life Science, a portfolio company of the Polish Development Fund (PFR). Other investors also included; Montis Capital, Seventure Partners, and a group of angel investors.
Proteon Pharmaceuticals is a company that utilizes AI technology to develop novel combinations of natural bacteriophages. This technology allows them to address the issue of reducing the reliance on antibiotics and slow down antibiotic resistance within the animal agriculture industry.
“The funds raised from investors will support the company’s efforts to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock farming and to promote sustainable protein production and ultimately improve human health. We are proud that the potential of our company has attracted such a wide group of industry and financial investors who, like us, believe in the unique capabilities of bacteriophages,” explains Jarosław Dastych, CEO of Proteon Pharmaceuticals.
The company currently has two registered bacteriophage cocktail products available in Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa. These products include; for poultry to target Salmonella and Avian pathogenic Escherichia Coli (APEC) infections and for aquaculture to target Pseudomonas and Aeromonas infections.
The investment raised will be aimed towards the acceleration of commercializing and global rollout of bacteriophage-based products for livestock and aquaculture, as an alternative to the use of antibiotics in the industries. Product pipeline includes: for dairy cows to target Mastitis and for shrimp production to target the prevention of AHPND.
“This investment increases our ability to make bacteriophages available to the global livestock and aquaculture markets, where they will increase the environmental sustainability of protein production as well as significantly reduce the need for antibiotics,” says Matthew Tebeau, COO of Proteon Pharmaceuticals.
Raised funds will also contribute towards further expansion of the capabilities of Proteon Pharmaceuticals’ microbiome platform technology. This platform will be developed through AI tools; high throughput screening and process automation, as well as production capacity expansion.