GSK plc and the Fleming Initiative have announced six major new research programs to find new ways to slow the progress of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Fleming Initiative is a collaboration established by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to help tackle AMR. Each of the new programs will begin by early next year and are fully funded for 3 years.
The multidrug resistance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) makes it a global threat to public health, and the current first-line treatment for MRSA, the glycopeptide vancomycin, can have toxic effects on the kidney and ear.
Glox Therapeutics Ltd. has raised £4.3 million (US$5.37 million) in seed funding to develop targeted therapeutics against antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria. The company was founded earlier this year as a spin-out from the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford.
National Taiwan University researchers reported the identification of a novel sorafenib derivative, SCB-24, which has the potential to be a new antimicrobial therapeutic.
Kaken Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Bitbiome Inc. have entered into an agreement to collaborate on the creation of new drugs targeting infectious diseases with unmet medical needs.
Investigators working at the Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, China, have reported the development of novel ruthenium polypyridine antibiotics with demonstrably promising in vitro and in vivo activity against Staphylococcus aureus.
The U.S. FDA’s approval, in recent years, of new medicines that can fight certain drug-resistant bugs makes it possible to conduct noninferiority trials of potential antibacterial therapies in patients with infections caused by those bugs since active controls are now available.
