€83m research project to tackle Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
Five-year COMBACTE-CARE project will develop new tools to detect CRE and conduct trials with AstraZeneca’s ATM-AVI product
Eighteen European academic partners and three pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca, GSK and Basilea) are launching a five-year, €83m research project under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)-funded New Drugs 4 Bad Bugs (ND4BB) programme.
Called COMBACTE-CARE (Combatting Bacterial resistance in Europe-Carbapenem-Resistance), the project will include studies and activities related to the treatment of patients with infections caused by Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Being very difficult to treat and sometimes deadly, CRE are considered to be dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The University Medical Centre Utrecht will manage the project.
It is well documented that antibiotic resistance is a global public health threat and infections due to multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) are rapidly increasing. In particular, infections caused by CRE are of major concern.
Collaboration addresses the need for greater understanding of the clinical management and outcomes of CRE infections
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently concluded that CRE represent a public health threat that requires urgent and aggressive action. CRE is resistant to most available antibiotics, leaving few available options for therapy. New treatments are therefore urgently needed. In addition, the epidemiology of CRE is characterised by large heterogeneity in genotypes and phenotypes, which seriously hampers its rapid detection.
The COMBACTE-CARE project aims to understand how patients with CRE infections are managed. It will develop new tools to detect CRE and conduct clinical trials with AstraZeneca’s antibiotic combination product Aztreonam-Avibactam (ATM-AVI), currently in development for the treatment of serious infections due to metallo‐β‐lactamase producing Gram‐negative pathogens, a difficult to treat sub-type of CRE infections.
Professor Marc Bonten, of the University Medical Centre Utrecht, said: ‘COMBACTE-CARE will be the first concerted action in the ND4BB programme to combat the rapidly growing threat of infections caused by carbapenamase-producing bacteria in Europe.’
Dr Seamus O’Brien, EFPIA Co-ordinator at AstraZeneca said the collaboration addresses the need for greater understanding of the clinical management and outcomes of CRE infections and also makes a significant contribution to the development of ATM-AVI.
The COMBACTE-CARE project will closely collaborate with and further strengthen the clinical and laboratory networks CLIN-Net and LAB-Net of COMBACTE, one of the first projects within the ND4BB programme begun in January 2013.
