Pharma company plans new class of antibiotics for superbugs

Toronto, ON – Affinium Pharmaceuticals says it has selected a drug candidate for development of a novel MRSA antibiotic to be used in hospital and community settings. The candidate is one of multiple compounds from the company’s Galapagos program.

“It is important that our development candidate operates via a novel mechanism of action with very novel chemistry, and distinct from any other antibiotic on the market,” says Dr Judd Berman, the company’s senior vice president of chemistry. “Our drug candidates selectively inhibit a bacterial pathway to kill bacteria without any detectable side effects to the analogous human pathway. Because of their unique way of working, we believe resistance will be slow to develop.”

He adds that the team selected Affinium’s first development candidate after evaluating animal data from over 150 front runner compounds with potent MRSA activity from this new antibiotic class. “We selected the first compound for its potential as an IV and oral antibiotic for hospital and community MRSA,” he says.