Icelandic startup bags €6M EU grant to fight drug-resistant infections

Reykjavik-based Horizon Europe has given a €6 million grant to Akthelia Pharmaceuticals and the University of Iceland to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR). When bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and stop responding to medications, infections become more difficult to cure.

AMR is one of the top health dangers facing the world today, according to the WHO, and when "pan-drug"-resistant bacteria develop, it might spark the next major pandemic. Additionally, it is predicted that AMR-related diseases now cause more than 5 million deaths annually, more than AIDS/HIV or malaria combined.

Now, the EU-funded IN-ARMOR project, coordinated by Aktelia and the University of Iceland, seeks to address this issue in partnership with eight other academic institutions, six businesses, and other organizations throughout Europe.

The goal of the research is to create a novel class of medication that will enhance the body's innate immunity or natural immune response. It will include bacterial, viral, and fungal illnesses.

Innate immunity and antimicrobial peptides, which are short protein chains important to the immune systems of mammals including humans, will be the focus of IN-ARMOR's research and development. The work of the startup is based on research done by the University of Iceland, one of the company's owners.

The project will create a novel drug using in-silico methods and computer-aided drug design. Utilizing nanotechnology, it will be possible to direct medications toward particular regions of the body, increasing their efficacy and minimizing side effects.

IN-ARMOR will go to clinical validation after being finished. The research team envisions the new medication being used both alone and in conjunction with current antibiotics.

We can avoid using conventional antibiotics and create ground-breaking new medicines to combat multiresistant bacteria by focusing on enhancing the body's intrinsic defenses against infection. According to Gumundur Hrafn Gudmundsson, a professor at the University of Iceland and CSO at Akthelia, this could save countless lives all over the world.

If IN-ARMOR is effective, it could prevent the development of antibiotics from costing €107 billion in the long run. Additionally, it would decrease the number of DALYs or years lost to early death or years spent with a handicap as a result of a disease, by 97 million worldwide.