Novel antibiotics to overcome antibacterial resistance

Small and innovative pharmaceutical companies, with products in early stages of development, presented some of their novel approaches and antimicrobial therapies under development during a dedicated session at the annual congress (ECCMID) of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) in Amsterdam.

Dr. Ursula Theuretzbacher, the founder of the Centre for Anti-Infective Agents in Vienna, led the session, which gave an overview of the research and development programmes that are driving innovation in this critical space.

At a time of transition with big pharma continuing to move away from the development of antibacterial treatments, these small biotechnology companies and start-ups are rising to the challenge and filling the gap through the discovery and development of novel therapies.

Dr. Ursula Theuretzbacher remarked: “we are pleased to see a number of highly promising antibacterial drugs of a new class and or a new mode of action now in the research or close to the preclinical phase. To aid the development of more drug candidates, crucial to increasing the chances of a sufficient number reaching the clinical stage, innovative researchers in small companies or universities are pursuing a range of non-traditional approaches in addition to classical ones.

New approaches highlighted at pipeline corner fall into three key categories: targeted therapies, adjunctive therapies and potentiators.

• Targeted therapies - traditional antibiotics and antibodies that are active against a single pathogen, especially Staphylococcus aureus or Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Adjunctive therapies – including drugs that target virulence factors, biofilm formation, immune system stimulation, modifying the microbiome, and phages. All such approaches require an active antibiotic
• Potentiators – an adjuvant drug, such as beta-lactamase-inhibitors or efflux pump inhibitors, improve the activity of an antibiotic by inhibiting resistance determinants, either facilitating the penetration or changing the sensitivity of the bacterial cell

Spero, Cidara and Melinta Therapeutics attend from the USA and Vitas Pharma from India. European biotechnology companies making presentations included Discuva, Bioversys and Morphochem. In addition, a publicly funded research institution, the German Centre for Infection Research, was also a key feature at the 2016 pipeline corner.    

Novel antibiotics to overcome antibacterial resistance: Small and innovative pharmaceutical companies, with products in early stages of development, presented some of their novel approaches and antimicrobial therapies under development during a dedicated session at the annual congress (ECCMID) of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases(ESCMID) in Amsterdam.