Trans-Atlantic deal made for development of bacterial virulence drug

Cheshire-based R&D facility for new antibiotics and diagnostics, the AMR Centre, has signed a deal with US biotech company, Microbiotix, for the co-development of a bacterial virulence drug candidate.

Under the terms of the agreement, the AMR Centre and Microbiotix will combine resources to accelerate the development of Microbiotix’s type III secretion system (T3SS) inhibitor project. The project was awarded up to $3.2 million by Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Accelerator (CARB-X) in March this year based on successful progression through milestones. As part of this newly signed deal, the AMR Centre will provide up to $1.1m of technical support to coincide with $1.6m of initial CARB-X funding for the identification of a drug candidate to take to clinical trials.

“This agreement with the AMR Centre will significantly accelerate our ability to deliver a pre-clinical candidate,” commented Terry Bowlin, PhD, president & CEO, Microbiotix. “We believe our T3SS inhibitors have great potential to help critically ill patients infected with drug resistant P. aeruginosa.

“Almost one-third of clinical isolates from these patients are resistant to three or more antibiotics, leading to treatment failures and increased mortality. Our novel inhibitors of the type III secretion system (T3SS) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, have been shown to reverse the pathogen's disruption of the host innate immune response to infection and are not subject to efflux or existing antibiotic resistance mechanisms.”

Dr Pete Jackson, executive director of the AMR Centre, said: “We are pleased to be working with Microbiotix to help address the critical unmet need for therapies targeting drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria.

“As a CARB-X alliance partner we are pleased to be inputting our resources alongside those of CARB-X and Microbiotix, into this exciting trans-Atlantic programme. This is very much a co-development and as such our UK based scientists are actively working on what candidates to take forward. We believe that this innovative project, which targets a World Health Organisation Priority 1 and ESKAPE pathogen, has the potential to reduce the threat of antimicrobial resistance.”