[caption id="attachment_1855" align="alignleft" width="485" caption="Left to right: Rob Adams, director of Moot Corp, and Novophage's Timothy Lu, Tanguy Chau and Michael Koeris"][/caption]

AUSTIN, Texas— A company hoping to significantly slow the onset of antibiotic resistance has claimed the grand prize at the 26th annual Global Moot Corp Competition at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

Novophage Therapeutics from Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology beat out 39 teams from top Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs around the world on May 9 to win a prize package worth $135,000.

Novophage Therapeutics will introduce a biological therapy that slows the onset of antibiotic resistance and increases the efficacy of antibiotics. The company plans to offer treatments for highly antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, allowing infectious disease doctors to better manage the fight against multidrug-resistant strains through co-administration of engineered bacteriophages with current clinical standards of care. 

The $135,000 prize package consists of a $25,000 cash prize; the Austin Technology Incubator Launch Package worth $25,000, which includes strategic business consulting services and mentoring from a team of industry experts, office space and access to discounted legal, accounting and businesses services from top tier providers. It also includes consulting with the McCombs School of Business entrepreneurship faculty worth $25,000; and a full-page ad in Inc. magazine worth $60,000. Novophage will close the NASDAQ stock market on July 31.

For more information on Moot Corp and this year’s participants, visit www.mootcorp.org.

Started at The University of Texas at Austin by MBA students in 1984, the Moot Corp competition is the oldest and largest new venture competition in the world. Often referred to as the “Super Bowl of world business plan competitions,” it provides MBA student teams with a chance to simulate the process of raising venture capital.