Prolysis enter drug discovery deal
of antibiotic resistance was the focus of a drug discovery
agreement between two UK companies. The deal aims to produce
broad-spectrum antibiotics that are urgently needed to treat
resistant hospital and community-acquired infections.
The deal is just part of an ongoing battle for the pharmaceutical industry, which face reductions in the useful lifespan of antibacterial products. The development of a new class of drugs to treat hospital infections such as vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have a sales potential of $200 million-$1 billion (€149 million - €746 million) per year.
As part of this agreement, Proteom's proprietary in silico screening and de novo design technology, ProtoScreen and ProtoBuild, will be used in the design of new classes of antibiotics targeting bacterial cell division.
Its partnership with drug R&D company Prolysis, will also include the company's application of its proprietary whole-cell assay technology. Financial details were not disclosed.
ProtoScreen is a virtual screening application developed at Proteom that is able to provide enrichment rates of up to 100 fold over random screening methodologies. It utilises Proteom's proprietary scoring system, ProtoScore in order to provide a fast accurate Kd prediction for a given protein-ligand interaction.
Likewise ProtoBuild is a proprietary small molecule de novo design platform whose function is to aid in the identification of novel lead-like chemical series. ProtoBuild provides for the in silico combination of small chemical fragments in the binding site of a protein.
The evolution and spread of resistance is currently outpacing the introduction of new antimicrobials. Improved analogs from existing antibiotic classes have been affected by cross-resistance to other drugs within that class. The only truly novel agent to be introduced in the last 20 years is the oxazolidinone linezolid.
Dr Steve Ruston, CEO of Prolysis commented: "There is an urgent clinical need for new classes of antibiotics to tackle the rising incidence of drug-resistant bacterial infection. Prolysis is rising to this challenge through its development of a portfolio of novel antibacterial agents."
The global market for antibiotics is just under $25 billion per year. A number of antibacterial products enjoy blockbuster status including amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, azithromycin, and ciprofloxacin.
The quinolones represent the fastest growing segment of this market, with recently launched products as well as existing products with significant market share. The worldwide market for these agents is valued at $3.5 billion with North America and Europe accounting for $1.6 billion and $778 million in sales, respectively.
Despite the commercial success of the quinolones, these drugs have also faced challenges from both a developmental and marketing viewpoint. There have been safety issues related to liver toxicity and cardiovascular risks, which have resulted in discontinuation of product development (e.g., clinafloxacin), market withdrawal (e.g., Raxar/Vaxar) or suspended use (e.g., Trovan). In addition to the safety issues, quinolones are not active against many of the problematic resistant strains.
