Debiopharm And TCG Lifesciences Reach First Milestone In Antibiotics Partnership
Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company Debiopharm Group and collaborator TCG Lifesciences, a contract research services company in early drug discovery and development, announced that they have reached the first research milestone of the partnership’s antibiotics venture.
Nine months after the companies signed their drug discovery collaboration, new classes of targeted anti-infectious diseases were identified. The partnership will now proceed to the lead optimization phase of novel antibiotics to treat drug-resistant bacteria infections that are spread through the community and in hospital settings.
Dr. Saumitra Sengupta, scientist at TCG Lifesciences, said that both partners worked to reach the first milestone in the collaboration. “We are excited about partnering with Debiopharm in their search for new antibiotics and wish to continue in the same spirit of value addition in order to bring this project to a meaningful result.”
Andrés McAllister, CSO of Debiopharm International SA, said that the partnership is now ready to enter the lead optimization phase following the discovery of the early leads. “It is an important milestone for Debiopharm, supporting our strong commitment to develop novel antibiotics to overcome resistance to current treatments. It is part of our global strategy initiated with the development of our FabI inhibitors, Debio 1450, currently in clinical Phase 1 and Debio 1452 which has already demonstrated high efficacy in the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin-structure infections in a Phase 2 trial.”
As part of the agreement, Debiopharm will make a research milestone payment to TCG Lifesciences.
Earlier this month, Debiopharm reported the launch of a Phase 1 dose-escalation study of Debio 1450 antibiotic against several Staphylococcus species, including all known resistant strains such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA). The company said the study is a step towards their goal of developing an IV/oral anti-infective agent for difficult-to-treat infections and that it complements the IV single-ascending dose Phase I trial presented at the 24th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2014) in Barcelona.