GSK exercises option on antibiotic
Pays US$15m to California-based Anacor to develop GSK 052
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has exercised its option to develop and commercialise an antibiotic derived from Anacor’s boron chemistry platform.
Called GSK 052 (formerly AN3365), the antibiotic has shown robust activity against multi-resistant gram-negative bacteria in early stage studies with no cross-resistance to existing classes of antibiotics.
GSK 052 will be developed as a potential treatment for complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAIs), and hospital/ventilator-associated pneumonia (HAP/VAP).
Under the terms of the agreement, Anacor, based in Palo Alto, California in the US, will receive an option exercise fee of US$15m and is eligible for further development and commercialisation milestone payments and royalties on any future product sales. GSK will now assume responsibility for the compound.
David Payne, vice president of GSK’s Anti-bacterial Drug Discovery Unit, said the antibiotic has ‘an entirely novel mechanism of action with the potential to be the first new class antibacterial to treat serious hospital gram-negative infections in 30 years’.
David Perry, Anacor’s chief executive, added: ‘The increasing prevalence of gram-negative strains of bacteria that are resistant to current antibiotics has created a significant unmet medical need that GSK 052 appears well positioned to address.’
GSK 052 is a novel boron-based, small-molecule candidate that targets the bacterial enzyme leucyl tRNA synthetase. Preclinical studies suggest that it is a promising compound for the treatment of infections caused by a broad range of gram-negative bacteria, including E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Citrobacter spp, S.marcescens, P.vulgaris, Providentia spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter spp.
