Prokaryotics Receives National Institutes of Health Subaward to Support the Lead Optimization and Preclinical Candidate Selection of a Mechanistically Novel Antifungal Agent
Union, NJ – December 22, 2025 -- Prokaryotics Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel anti-infectives, announced today that it is a project subawardee of a 5-year grant (U19AI189183) awarded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in collaboration with the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI). Prokaryotics is part of a team that will receive $7 million per year to develop innovative antifungal drugs and diagnostic strategies aimed at addressing antifungal resistance. The CDI’s effort is led by David Perlin, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and executive vice president, in collaboration with principal investigator Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D., the Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Targeting the fungal cell wall has proven to be a safe and clinically effective strategy to develop new antifungal drugs. Standard of care antifungals, including the broad class of echinocandins as well as ibrexafungerp, work by inhibiting the synthesis of the essential cell wall polymer ß-(1-3)-glucan. Prokaryotics’ antifungal program targets a distinct process in cell wall biogenesis, namely inhibition of glucosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) biosynthesis, thus disrupting the mechanism by which cell wall proteins are covalently anchored to the cell wall. Clinical drug candidate fosmanogepix also inhibits GPI biosynthesis – albeit by inhibiting a distinctly different enzyme in the GPI pathway – and its efficacy is currently being evaluated in a large late-stage human Phase 3 study. Clinical development of the Prokaryotics program is anticipated to be similarly de-risked and efficacious.
We are thrilled to have the continued support of NIAID and are delighted to collaborate with Dr. Perlin, Dr. Casadevall, and their exceptional teams at the CDI and Johns Hopkins University. It is estimated that serious fungal infections cause ~1.7 million deaths worldwide annually – a number comparable to deaths caused by tuberculosis or malaria. The emerging resistance to existing antifungal drugs only exacerbates this threat and underscores the need for new antifungal agents with novel modes of action distinct from current clinically used drugs.
-- Terry Roemer PhD., Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer at Prokaryotics Inc.
Overcoming invasive fungal disease and the escalating global threat of antimicrobial resistance urgently requires new therapeutic options grounded in novel chemical classes and targets. This is why the innovative approach proposed by Prokaryotics to accelerate drug development is so critically important.
-- Dr. David Perlin, Chief Scientific Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health Center of Discovery Innovation [HMH CDI]
About Antimicrobial Resistant (AMR) Fungal Pathogens
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently emphasized the critical need for mechanistically novel antifungal agents to combat the increasing drug resistance to existing standard-of-care antifungal therapeutics. Critical Priority pathogens designated by the WHO include Candida albicans, Candida auris, and Aspergillus fumigatus. Prokaryotics’ GPI inhibitor program effectively targets these pathogens and an even broader spectrum of rare molds, against which standard of care antifungal agents are ineffective.
About Prokaryotics, Inc.
Prokaryotics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company founded on Merck & Co. out-licensed antibiotic assets under development to treat life-threatening AMR infections. Prokaryotics leverages its deep expertise in microbial physiology, medicinal chemistry, collaborative spirit, and scientific passion to discover and develop new classes of antibiotics specifically targeting bacterial and fungal cell wall and cell envelope biogenesis – the fundamental armor erected by these pathogens to naturally withstand the effects of antibiotic treatment and the human innate immune system.
www.prokaryotics.com