Member Article

€85 million European programme targets novel antibiotics

Over 30 European universities, research institutes, and companies, led by GlaxoSmithKline and Redx Pharma, are joining forces in a 6 year programme supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) to develop novel antibiotics against Gram-negative pathogens in a project called ENABLE (European Gram-Negative Antibacterial Engine), including open calls for candidates outside the consortium.

The world faces a growing epidemic of antibiotic resistance, however only two new classes of antibiotics have been brought to the market in the last 30 years. The discovery and development of new antibiotics is essential to maintain medical advances but poses significant scientific, clinical, and financial challenges, particularly for antibiotics active against Gram-negative bacteria (such as E. coli).

Such bacteria have effective barriers against drugs, making treatment difficult, resistance likely and development costs and risks high. In addition, any new antibiotics brought to the market would likely be used cautiously to delay the development of resistance, adding an additional financial challenge in recouping the development costs.

In response to such barriers in the development of novel antibiotics, the IMI, a research partnership between the European Commission and major pharmaceutical companies (through EFPIA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), has launched New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB), a series of projects to target the bottlenecks in the development and effective use of novel antibiotics.

The ENABLE project, the third within the ND4BB series, spans 13 countries and brings together 32 partners with the mission to establish a significant anti-bacterial drug discovery platform for the progression of research programmes through discovery and Phase 1 clinical trials.

A preliminary portfolio of programmes will be expanded through open calls to create a full development pipeline, with the ultimate goal to complete phase 1 clinical trials of at least one novel anti-bacterial for Gram-negative infections by 2019.

This joint public and private investment through the IMI reflects the changing nature of drug development for high-risk areas such as antibiotics, and has the mission to mobilise expertise from universities, research institutes, and industry in Europe to meet global challenges. It places Europe at the forefront of collaborative research between industry and academia for health challenges.

Redx Pharma CEO, Dr Neil Murray, said: “Redx Pharma is one of the UK’s leading biotech companies in the fight against AMR, so it was important for us to be involved in this consortium. IMI is an initiative which provides a pivotal platform for industry and academia to join forces and develop and pursue innovative ways of tackling this critical issue.

“Gram-negative infections like e-coli are amongst the toughest to deal with and represent a grave threat to human health world-wide. We’re excited about the possibilities for IMI and the pioneering approach which is being spearheaded through this programme.”

Redx Pharma is the largest UK biotech working on the discovery of new antibiotics. The Redx group is focused on early stage drug research and development programmes at sites in Liverpool and at Alderley Park, Cheshire.

Promising compounds which pass proof of concept in the laboratory are licenced on for further development and progression into human trials by other pharma companies.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .