New antibiotic to combat deadly bacterial ‘superbugs’ enters clinical trials

[2greys]

In a critical step towards addressing an urgent unmet medical need due to infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria - also known as ‘superbugs’ - a new antibiotic (QPX9003) discovered by Monash University researchers has entered Phase 1 clinical trials in the United States.

The trials have been initiated by the US-based biopharmaceutical company Qpex Biopharma Inc. (Qpex) who have worked in collaboration with Monash to drive clinical development of the drug.

QPX9003, which was discovered at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) and the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), is an intravenously-administered synthetic next-generation polymyxin for treating Gram-negative ‘superbug’ infections. No new polymyxins have been approved since polymyxin B and colistin became available in the late 1950s.

Deemed a global health crisis, Gram-negative bacteria can cause serious infections, including pneumonia, bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, peritonitis and meningitis. The World Health Organization has highlighted that new antibiotics are urgently needed to treat bacterial ‘superbugs’, which have the potential to kill 10 million people per year by 2050 – more than any other type of disease.

monash.edu/news/articles/ne...

[RoadRunner44]

Thank goodness for the researchers and their findings. This is a big step forward.

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Fingers crossed for this - we’ve been increasingly hampered by a cephalosporin allergy. The two most recent pseudomonas targeted antibiotics for MDR strains (ceftolozane-tazobactam and ceftazidime-avibactam) are both cephalosporin based, and desensitisation is both hugely time consuming and massively impractical for multiple courses. Not to mention not always successful. A new polymyxin would be a major boost.

[teenieleek]

This is good news because pharmaceutical companies have for decades been unwilling to invest in the research needed to create new antibiotics because of the potentially low return. Things like viagra were much more lucrative so that’s where the investment went.