(Monmouth Junction, NJ USA)– On April 15, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released their report titled “2020 Antibacterial Agents in Clinical and Preclinical Development” naming TAXIS Pharmaceuticals’ FtsZ inhibitor drug candidate TXA709 as one of only 2 (out of 26) antibacterials targeting WHO priority pathogens that meet all of the WHO innovation criteria (absence of known cross resistance, new class, new target; new mode of action).The April 15, 2021 WHO press release titled “Global shortage of innovative antibiotics fuels emergence and spread of drug-resistance” can be read online here. The full 76-page WHO Report titled “2020 Antibacterial Agents in Clinical and Preclinical Development” can be downloaded here.

ABOUT TAXIS PHARMACEUTICALS
TAXIS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical stage company developing anti-resistance drug candidates that enable the re-use of the most widely prescribed generic antibiotics against antibiotic-resistant ESKAPE pathogens (E. faecium, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species). Our TAXISTANCE® anti-resistance drug platform is focused on the disruption of the foundation of bacterial cell wall architecture to address elemental forms of drug resistance. Our most advanced drug candidate, oral TXA709, will be enrolling an additional Phase I human safety clinical trial in healthy volunteers for development as an anti-resistance drug to be used in combination with obsolete antibiotics as a fully oral anti-MRSA treatment. TXA709 targets the Filamenting temperature-sensitive mutant Z (FtsZ) bacterial cell division protein and was granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designation by the FDA. It may also be possible to develop a FtsZ drug candidate targeting Gram-negative bacteria in the future. Our Efflux Pump Inhibitors (EPIs) represent a new drug class against Gram-negative multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens. Bacterial efflux pumps act like bilge pumps by flushing antibiotics out of the bacterial cell and are responsible for antibiotic resistance in many gram-negative strains. TAXIS Pharmaceuticals EPIs have shown that they can resurrect the activity, potency and effectiveness of multiple classes of antibiotics including Macrolides, Cephalosporins, Monobactams, Antimycobacterials, Tetracyclines, Fluoroquinolones and Sulfanomides. Current data reveals synergy with 28 currently approved and marketed antibiotics that no longer work or now require high doses to have any effect.