Microbiotix and the AMR Centre Announce Co-Development Agreement Targeting Drug Resistant P. aeruginosa in Critically Ill Pneumonia Patients

WORCESTER, Massachusetts and ALDERLEY PARK, England, Sept. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Microbiotix, Inc., a clinical stage biotech company focused on the discovery and development of novel drugs that target serious infectious diseases, and the AMR Centre, a joint private-public initiative to support/accelerate the development of new antibiotics and diagnostics, announced today that they have entered into a co-development agreement to accelerate the development of Microbiotix's lead bacterial virulence drug candidate.

As part of this agreement, Microbiotix and the AMR Centre will combine resources and leverage their antimicrobial R&D expertise to accelerate the development of Microbiotix's T3SS (type III secretion system) inhibitor project, which was awarded up to $3.2 million, based on successful progression through milestones, from CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Accelerator) in March 2017. 

Under this new agreement, the AMR Centre will provide up to $1.1m of technical support including over $600,000 of project funding, alongside $1.6m of initial CARB-X funding, to identify a drug candidate to take into clinical trials.

"This agreement with the AMR Centre will significantly accelerate our ability to deliver a pre-clinical candidate," said 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."

"We are pleased to be working with Microbiotix to help address the critical unmet need for therapies targeting drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria," said Pete Jackson, Ph.D., Executive Director, the AMR Centre. "T3SS inhibitors represent an exciting early stage program. The novel mode of action addresses the effects of the infection without directly killing the organism. In that way the solution does not encourage the bug to evolve resistance. 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 program.  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 WHO Priority 1 and ESKAPE pathogen, has the potential to reduce the threat of antimicrobial resistance."

About Microbiotix, Inc.

Microbiotix is a Worcester, MA-based biotech company focused on the discovery and development of novel drugs that target serious infectious diseases. The Company's lead program, MBX-400, a novel, potent nucleoside dual DNA polymerase/kinase inhibitor for the management of cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in transplant patients, is Phase 2-ready.

About AMR Centre

Based at Alderley Park in the UK, the AMR Centre is a public-private initiative with a mission to accelerate the development of new and novel antimicrobial products that help address the issue of anti-microbial resistance. The AMR Centre addresses this through the provision of its own translational R and D capabilities and those of its partners, taking projects from pre-clinical hits through to clinical proof of concept.  The AMR Centre is an Alliance Partner of the CARB-X international consortium.

This press release was supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number IDSEP160030 from ASPR/BARDA and by an award from the Wellcome Trust, as administrated by CARB-X. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the National Institutes of Health or the Wellcome Trust.