Switzerland's Evolva is negotiating with the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a branch of the State Department, for a contract worth up to $14.7 million to fund preclinical work on an antibiotic compound the biotech is developing. The compound, GC-072, is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that has been effective in preclinical studies in vitro and in vivo against a wide range of bacterial pathogens, including Burkholderia pseudomallei, which causes the disease melioidosis and is regarded as a potential biothreat agent. New therapies to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections are sorely needed as tolerance to current drugs grows and the antibiotics pipeline dries up. Evolva says the negotiations are expected to take several months. Release