Clinical stage, privately held Swiss specialty pharma company, Polyphor, has presented promising data for their novel class of antibiotics, the Outer Membrane Protein Targeting Antibiotics (OMPTA).
This is the first new class of antibiotic against Gram-negative pathogens to reach advanced clinical development in more than 40 years.
Murepavadin, the first member of the OMPTA class, is being developed for the treatment of the most severe Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infection: nosocomial pneumonia, including hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia. The disease has a death rate of 20–50%.
Ignacio Martin-Loeches, St James' Hospital, Trinity College, Dublin (Ireland) said:
“PA represents a significant threat to the most vulnerable hospital patients, including intensive care patients; those with depleted immune systems, such as those with cancer; people with severe burns; and premature babies in neonatal units. Treatment options are limited and so this new class of antibiotics is desperately needed.”
Murepavadin
Early initiation of effective antimicrobial treatment for PA pulmonary infections is a strong predictor of mortality. However, multi-drug resistant (MDR) PA has become a global problem and as such, treatment is becoming more challenging with limited options available.
Murepavadin, by means of its novel and unique mechanism of action, is extremely active and is being developed as first line treatment for MDR cases.
Data presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases have shown that, when treated with Murepavadin, there was a high rate of clinical cure and low rate of mortality in a small patient group.
They also demonstrated that multiple doses of Murepavadin were considered to be safe and with acceptable tolerability.
Glenn Dale, Head of Early Development, Antimicrobials, Polyphor said:
“Murepavadin's single pathogen focus prevents a build-up of resistance against other pathogens, which is a common problem with antibiotics. This year, we expect Murepavadin to enter Phase III trials and take another step to bring it to patients.”
“In addition, our OMPTA platform could bring further new important therapies in the treatment of Gram-negative pathogens.”
