By Kashish Tandon

Sept 12 (Reuters) - F2G said on Thursday it has raised

$100 million from investors including AMR Action Fund, backed by

large drugmakers such as Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) and Pfizer ( PFE ), to help

it develop treatments for infections caused by drug resistant

"superbugs" or microbes.

The funding also includes investment from Novo Holdings that

holds a controlling stake in Novo Nordisk. The latest

round would help the UK-based company complete a global

late-stage study of its lead drug, olorofim.

The drug is being developed to treat invasive fungal

infections including aspergillosis - a rare infection that is

resistant to antifungal medication.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the drug last

year, citing the need for more data after a mid-stage trial.

The ongoing late-stage study for the drug could help get

approval in Europe and Asia too, F2G CFO Ralf Schmid said.

Schmid said olorofim could be launched in the United States

"as early as 2026," and its peak sales could cross $1 billion.

The pipeline for new antibiotics and antifungal drugs has

suffered several setbacks over the years amid a wave of

bankruptcies among smaller biotech firms as they struggled with

anemic investments.

In 2020, 20 large drugmakers founded the AMR Action Fund to

boost the pipeline of antifungal and antibiotic drugs, with a

target of enabling as much as four novel antibiotics to hit the

market by 2030.

AMR Action Fund led the latest funding round for F2G, with

other investors including ICG Life Sciences and Advent Life

Sciences.

AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner said the drug had a new

mechanism, which is critically important for anti-infective

treatments as microbes develop resistance to older drugs.

Olorofim could also target "a lot of fungus that are

emerging as a much greater problem with global warming and

climate change," said Skinner.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini

Ganguli)