(Monmouth Junction, NJ USA)– TAXIS Pharmaceuticals announced that their Efflux Pump Inhibitor (EPI) drug candidates appears in the August 13th special Antibiotic Alternatives issue of ACS Infectious Diseases. The paper titled “The CARB-X Portfolio of Nontraditional Antibacterial Products” written by Erin Duffy, Ed Buurman, Su Chiang, Nadia Cohen, Maria Uria-Nickelsen and Richard Alm describes the ongoing need for the discovery and development of nontraditional antibacterial agents. It describes potentiators, which are molecules that, when used in combination with a known antibacterial agent, can improve or restore the activity of the agent. Multiprotein efflux pump systems, which are often responsible for the first-step erosion of drug susceptibility in Gram-negative pathogens as their overexpression can result in less drug being available to interact with intracellular targets. It specifically mentions that TAXIS Pharmaceuticals is developing a novel class of efflux-pump inhibitors that, when used in combination with antibacterial agents that are impacted by significant efflux, can restore clinically relevant activity. P. aeruginosa contains a plethora of diverse efflux pumps, and the TAXIS compounds have demonstrated activity against this species in combination with a variety of drug classes. The paper can be read online here.
ABOUT CARB-X
CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) is a global non-profit partnership dedicated to supporting early development antibacterial R&D to address the rising threat of drug-resistant bacteria. CARB-X is led by Boston University and funding is provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the US Department of Health and Human Services; the Wellcome Trust, a global charity based in the UK working to improve health globally; Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) funded by the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and with in-kind support from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the US Department of Health and Human Services. CARB-X is investing up to US$480 million from 2016-2022 to support innovative therapeutics, preventatives and rapid diagnostics. CARB-X funds only projects that target drug-resistant bacteria highlighted on the CDC’s Antibiotic Resistant Threats list, or the Priority Bacterial Pathogens list published by the WHO, with a priority on those pathogens deemed Serious or Urgent on the CDC list or Critical or High on the WHO list. CARB-X is headquartered at Boston University School of Law. https://carb-x.org/. Follow them on Twitter @CARB_X
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.
