Deftbiotech
La Trobe University spin-out Deftbiotech has received a $1 million boost through the La Trobe University Eagle Fund, helping the company move its lead antifungal drug candidate closer to the next stage of clinical development.
Partnership at a glance
- Deftbiotech is a La Trobe University-based spin-out company developing a new antifungal drug candidate called Pezadeftide
- The company received $1 million through the La Trobe University Eagle Fund, with contributions from La Trobe and Breakthrough Victoria
- The funding is supporting the next stage of development, including clinical trial preparation, regulatory work and manufacturing readiness
- Deftbiotech builds on decades of La Trobe research into plant-derived antifungal molecules and their potential to treat human disease
- Alongside funding, the company is receiving strategic advice and commercialisation support to help build capability for the next phase of growth.
Case study
A new treatment for fungal disease has moved a step closer, with La Trobe University spin-out Deftbiotech receiving $1 million through the La Trobe University Eagle Fund to help prepare its lead drug candidate for the next stage of clinical development.
“We’ve moved beyond the basic science now,” says Emeritus Professor Marilyn Anderson AO, who co-founded the company after decades of research at La Trobe. “This is commercial development.”
Deftbiotech was established to continue the development of Pezadeftide, which showed promise as a topical treatment for fungal nail disease in Phase 1 trials and may also have potential in other topical fungal infections. Treatments for fungal disease can be expensive, ineffective or increasingly affected by drug resistance, and new options are badly needed.
The Eagle Fund is now helping Deftbiotech do the work that sits between a promising discovery and a treatment that can be properly tested. Since formally beginning this phase of the grant earlier in 2026, the company has been preparing for a small clinical trial for toenail infections. That work includes reviewing existing data, preparing an ethics application, and putting manufacturing arrangements in place.
“We’re getting everything ready to start the clinical trial,” Professor Anderson says.
That preparation involves much more than making the drug itself. The company has been working through what evidence it already has, what still needs to be done, and how to secure a stable and reliable supply of the product from an approved manufacturer.
“This is the hard part, and it takes time,” Professor Anderson says. “Once you start dealing with regulators, there’s a huge amount of detail to work through.”
It’s taking the scientists out of the lab, really... (Eagle Fund is) teaching us how to build a business.
Building the pathway to trial
Professor Anderson’s work at La Trobe began with plant reproduction and the natural defence mechanisms flowers use to protect themselves from fungal attack. Over time, that research led to the discovery of plant-derived antifungal molecules that proved highly effective against fungal pathogens affecting humans. It later helped underpin Hexima, an earlier spin-out company, before Deftbiotech was established to take the antifungal program forward.
Now Professor Anderson says the team is working “full-time on getting the product manufactured, validated and packaged so it’s ready for the clinical trial”.
The Eagle Fund support is doing more than providing money for this next stage. Professor Anderson says it has also opened the door to one-on-one mentoring, strategic advice and practical support that would otherwise be difficult for a small spin-out to access. Through linked programs and advisers, Deftbiotech is getting help with business strategy, intellectual property and company development.
“It’s taking the scientists out of the lab, really,” she says. “They’re teaching us how to build a business.”
For now, Deftbiotech is focused on getting Pezadeftide into its next trial and doing the work needed to build the company around it. Longer term, the hope is to bring a new treatment option to people living with fungal disease and, in time, explore its use for other topical fungal infections.
Pictured: Deftbiotech co-founders La Trobe Emeritus Professor Marilyn Anderson AO, Emeritus Professor Adrienne E Clarke AC and Dr Kathy Parisi.
To learn more about the La Trobe University Eagle Fund.