DnaAcos is an early stage biotech company developing novel antimicrobial products based on application of its propriety screening assay, SF53.

DnaAcos, founded in 2007, owns the rights to a new antibacterial screen for identification of antibiotics with novel mode of action.

The screen, SF53, detects antibacterial drugs that act through inhibition of proteins involved in the machinery for bacteria DNA replication. The screening assay, SF53 was developed by Professor Kirsten Skarstad at Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Cell Biology at Rikshospitalet HF (previously The Norwegian Radium Hospital).

The market for new antibiotics
The world wide market for antibiotics is significant having a value of about $ 30 billions. From having been a market characterized by almost zero growth, low prices and a modest turnover per product, there is now a growing interest in developing new antibiotics. Some of the key drivers are ever increasing problems with resistance against first and second line antibiotics, and serious hospital infections. Thus, there is a strong need for novel and more effective antibiotics to combat multidrug resistant pathogens. Several candidate drugs are in late stage of development or under registration for treatment of mulitdrug resistance. Most of these compounds target the bacterial cell wall, the protein synthesis apparatus or DNA topoisomerase.  A drug inhibiting bacterial DNA replication would be a novel approach for targeting resistant bacteria.