First new antibiotic in 50 years could help treat superbug labelled ‘urgent threat'
The drug, which targets one of the bacteria considered to pose the biggest threat to human health, has been hailed as an 'exciting' development in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
Yesterday, Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, announced it will take zosurabalpin into the third and last phase of testing on humans.
It is the first drug in five decades to show promise of tackling Acinetobacter baumannii, a pathogen which is described as a 'priority' by the World Health Organisation and an 'urgent threat' by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the US national public health agency.
The drug-resistant bacteria disproportionately impact patients who are in the hospital, causing infections such as pneumonia and sepsis.
It is estimated that between 40pc and 60pc of infected patients, many of whom are immunocompromised because of conditions such as cancer, die as a result of the bug.
One of the reasons it is so difficult to treat is that it has a double-walled 'membrane' protecting it from attack, so it is difficult to get drugs into it and to keep them in, experts said.
Zosurabalpin, which has been developed alongside researchers at Harvard University, targets the 'machine' which stops the outer membrane from forming properly. It works differently to all existing antibiotics and it is hoped that it could lay the foundations for future drugs.
'Our goal is to contribute new innovations to overcome antimicrobial resistance, one of the biggest infectious disease challenges to public health,' Michael Lobritz, global head infectious diseases at Roche, said.
The phase-three trial, which it is hoped will start later this year or in early 2026, will look at around 400 patients with a carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii (Crab) infection who will either receive zosurabalpin or the current standard of care.
It is hoped that the drug will be approved by the end of the decade.
Pharmaceutical companies have in the past been unwilling to pursue new antibiotics because of a difficult market in which the drugs are used sparingly to try and avoid resistance.
However, the UN has warned that if nothing is done to address the issue, drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050.
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