€85m European project targets novel antibiotics
Aims to deliver at least one novel anti-bacterial candidate against Gram-negative infections in clinical trials by 2019
More than 30 European universities and companies, led by GlaxoSmithKline and Uppsala University, are joining forces in a six-year project to develop novel antibiotics against Gram-negative infections.
Other participants include Belgian contract research organisation Asclepia Outsourcing Solutions, which offers medicinal chemistry orientated research and services.
The ENABLE project is funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).
Nowadays, the world faces a growing epidemic of antibiotics 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, P. aeruginosa or A. baumannii). 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.
Responding to such barriers, 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 targeting the bottlenecks in the development and effective use of novel antibiotics.
The ENABLE project, the third in the ND4BB series, spans 13 countries and brings together 32 partners with a 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 outside the consortium to create a full development pipeline, with the ultimate goal to deliver at least one novel anti-bacterial candidate against Gram-negative infections into Phase II clinical trials by 2019.
'Accelerated efforts like this with the goal of creating an entirely new family of antibiotics are unique,' said Professor Anders Karlén from the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy at Uppsala University, who is the scientific co-director of the project. 'The commitment fills a long-standing gap: funding for collaboration is needed for the discovery of new antibacterials if we are to be able to cope with infectious diseases in the future.'
