Antabio and GARDP join forces to identify potential next-generation antibiotics

Geneva/Labège, 23 March 2026. The French biotech company Antabio and the GARDP Foundation (known as GARDP) today announced a joint effort to accelerate crucial early-stage antibiotic discovery, responding to a steep rise in drug-resistant infections worldwide and a dwindling supply of innovative new treatments.

Drug-resistant infections are estimated to kill more than one million people each year, yet the development of novel antibiotics remains critically low. Fewer than one in five antibiotics in today’s clinical pipeline show true innovation such as a new chemical class, a new mode of action or no cross-resistance.

Despite being one of the most dynamic areas of antibiotic innovation, the “discovery” phase is often neglected in the drug research and development cycle, especially by commercial investors. This stage is increasingly important, however, since it is when scientists can uncover new chemical classes and mechanisms active against drug-resistant pathogens – targeting bacterial survival mechanisms that current treatments fail to reach.

“Discovery research is a particularly fragile part of the antibiotic pipeline, and yet it’s where the future of new therapeutics begins,” said Dr Alan Hennessy, Head of Discovery at GARDP. “By combining GARDP and Antabio’s complementary resources and expertise, we can move promising antibacterial candidates forward faster and give them the best chance of becoming the innovative medicines that people so badly need.”

As part of the collaboration, the partners will advance selected “Hit-to-lead” projects, refining early “hits” drawn from GARDP’s discovery programme into high-value “lead” candidates with strong antibacterial activity, low toxicity, formulations suitable for human use, and an overall profile fit for progression into preclinical development.

The work will particularly target carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which are increasingly difficult to treat and drive a growing number of severe hospital-acquired infections, sepsis cases and related deaths worldwide.

“We are excited to announce this collaboration. Drug-resistant infections are rising at an alarming pace, leaving patients worldwide with too few effective treatment options,” said Marc Lemonnier, CEO of Antabio. “By bringing together GARDP’s and Antabio’s strengths, we can speed up the development of novel treatments for life‑threatening infections from WHO priority pathogens like carbapenem‑resistant Gram‑negative bacteria – including hard-to-treat metallo‑β‑lactamase producers.”
GARDP’s discovery programme has a unique role in antimicrobial research, initiating and leading its own high-impact drug discovery projects with expert partners, geared at maximizing global health impact. To date, these projects have screened more than 280,000 compounds and advanced multiple novel chemical series through early profiling.

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