Navarre is strengthening its position as a healthcare innovation hub with the launch of Enzineto-V, a strategic R&D project aimed at developing a new generation of advanced biotechnological therapies to tackle hospital infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria—one of today’s major public health challenges.
The initiative has a total budget of €2,032,281 and has been approved by the Government of Navarre, supported by a grant co-funded at 40% by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under Navarre’s ERDF Operational Programme 2021–2027.
Enzybiotic-based therapeutic innovation
Enzineto-V is developing an innovative solution based on enzybiotics—proteins engineered to identify and destroy resistant bacteria with high precision. This approach makes it possible to target only the pathogens responsible for the infection, preserving beneficial microbiota and opening up new therapeutic pathways for severe infections in hospital settings.
The project aims to develop and validate preclinically a new enzybiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii, a pathogen strongly associated with infections in intensive care units and increasingly resistant to conventional antibiotic treatments.
In addition, two routes of administration tailored to patients’ clinical profiles will be explored: intravenous, aimed at critically ill patients who are intubated in ICU; and intranasal, designed for chronic non-intubated patients.
A Navarre-based consortium with global potential
The project is being delivered through a consortium of five leading organisations in biotechnology and health: Telum Therapeutics (project lead), V Labs Analytics, the University of Navarra, the Institute of Agrobiotechnology (CSIC-IDAB) and Navarra Health Cluster (NHC).
The collaboration will run over the next two years, until 2027, bringing together scientific, technological and industrial capabilities to advance a therapeutic alternative with transformative potential against multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Navarre as a health and biotech hub
Project partners highlight that Enzineto-V will contribute to generating advanced knowledge in biotechnology, boosting technology transfer to industry and the healthcare system, and fostering the creation of highly skilled jobs. The project also reinforces Navarre’s attractiveness as a destination for investment in innovative solutions tackling antimicrobial resistance.
Source: Navarra Capital