New Class of Antibiotics Combats the Three Deadliest Bacteria in the World

A new class of antibiotics developed by Polyphor has been shown to be effective against the three most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria in the world. 

Polyphor’s novel class of antibiotics has been shown to effectively combat the three bacteria marked as critical, priority 1 by the World Health Organization. To date, there are very limited to no treatments available for these three drug-resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacteriaceae.

The Swiss biotech’s new antibiotic class, called OMPTA, targets the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, which is usually the main barrier to antibiotics. It has also contributed to the fact that there have been no new antibiotics for Gram-negative bacteria in over 50 years.

The company’s lead antibiotic, murapavadin, is currently in Phase III development, a feat few other developing antibiotics have been able to reach. The drug has shown potent activity when tested against a panel of 785 strains of extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a petri dish. Moreover, the drug did not lead to significant antibiotic resistance or cross-resistance with other antibiotics.

Polyphor’s plans to support the development of its antibiotics further by launching an IPO of up to 150M CHF (€127M) in the second quarter of 2018.

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