Hope in fight against antibiotic resistance

Helperby Therapeutics and Cadila Pharmaceuticals have responded to the challenge laid down by the G8 Science Ministers in their statement where the ministers noted Antimicrobial Resistance was “… a major health security challenge of the twenty first century” by developing the world’s first antibiotic resistance breaker.

Encouraging news is emerging from Helperby Therapeutics-Cadila Pharmaceuticals that potentially life-saving treatments are in development – just six months after signing their agreement.  In an industry which typically takes 15-20 years to bring a new drug to market and at costs upwards of £1bn, this brings the promise of hope to the millions who will suffer with incurable, resistant infections across the globe.

Helperby Therapeutics, a spin-out of St George’s University of London and one of the few pioneers globally working to overcome antibiotic resistance, has discovered that combining its patented resistance breakers with obsolete antibiotics can produce effective microbial kill rates with significantly lower or no toxicity to the patient. 

The partnership is developing a potential treatment against the world’s most deadly superbugs, gram-negative carbapenem-resistant organisms.  The last line of defence for patients critically ill with this deadly organism is colistin - an antibiotic with serious side effects and to which resistance is already beginning to emerge.

The drug discovery company has entered into collaboration with Cadila Pharmaceuticals, whose USFDA-approved facilities are at the forefront of the fight to bring antibiotic treatments focused on providing affordable treatments to patients.

“The Helperby-Cadila Pharmaceuticals partnership is an ideal match for both organisations enabling high quality, highly regulated development of potential antibiotic resistance breakers,” said Helperby’s Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Sir Anthony Coates.  “Cadila Pharmaceuticals is a developer and manufacturer focused on a market with a critical mass of patients who are suffering from incurable infections and we hope to deliver potentially lifesaving therapies which will address this worrying global menace.”

World Innovation Summit for Health

Professor Dame Sally Davies, UK’s Chief Medical Officer wrote in her report for the World Innovation Summit for Health that what she had learned “scared her as a mother, wife and friend” and estimated that around half a million people die each year as a result of resistance and carbapenem resistance is becoming increasingly common in many parts of the world.

Antibiotic resistance has seen more and more antibiotics becoming obsolete and this is creating a crisis which threatens to be bigger and more urgent than the Aids epidemic of the 1980s, according to the WHO – as “everyone is potentially in danger”.  “While many reports have been written, urgent and coordinated action on a global scale is required as unfortunately the pipeline for antibiotic development has run dry,” added Professor Coates.

One of the largest privately held pharmaceutical organisations in India, Cadila Pharmaceuticals was the first Indian company to receive Investigational New Drug approval from the USFDA. As a research and innovation-focused company, it has many first-in-the-world drugs to its credit, like Polycap (in cardiovascular), Mycidac-C (in oncology), Risorine (in respiratory) and Rabeloc IV (in Gastroenterology). Cadila Pharmaceuticals’ state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities conform to the most rigorous global cGMP Standards.  Its Chairman and Managing Director Dr Rajiv I Modi said: “Cadila Pharmaceuticals believes in providing affordable healthcare to patients. This collaborative effort with Helperby to develop resistance breakers will help us reach out to the masses who need this cost-effective treatment, especially in a country like India and other developing nations.”

Meanwhile, Helperby Therapeutics continues to discover potential antibiotic resistance breakers with its scientific team, led by Dr Yanmin Hu, identifying over 300 small molecules so far.  Helperby has seven other programmes at the preclinical stage for a range of conditions including urinary and genitourinary infections, cystic fibrosis and skin, mucosal and fungal infections. With 49 patent applications in place the company is looking for further collaborative partners around the globe to help fast-track these vital drugs to market.

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