Zapping the superbugs
The medical profession may soon be able to control hospital “superbugs” like golden staph far better, if a treatment under development by Brisbane’s Alchemia Ltd works out.
While no figures are available on the cost in Australia of treating such infections, more than $6 billion each year is spent on their treatment in the United States, says Alchemia managing director Dr Tracie Ramsdale.
Alchemia specialises in the discovery, development and synthesis of carbohydrate-based molecules for pharmaceutical applications.
In a significant breakthrough, independent test results have confirmed that the company’s novel class of antibiotic compounds, which are simple sugars that have been significantly modified, act uniquely against multi-drug resistant organisms.
“These findings could potentially be the most extraordinary scientific development in several decades in the fight against a broad range of multi-drug resistant bacterial strains,” Dr Ramsdale said.
“Effectively these test results verify that our compounds are suitable candidates for treating hospital-acquired infections.”
Dr Ramsdale said there were very few novel anti-bacterials in the global pipeline aimed at treating multi-drug resistant bacteria in hospitals.
“Not only are there very few antibiotics in development but bacterial resistance to existing drugs ‘of last resort’ is rapidly increasing – creating a serious health issue for the international community,” she said.
The independent tests were conducted by a world leader in such research, the Antimicrobial Research Centre at the University of Leeds.
Alchemia now will proceed to study the efficacy of these compounds in animal models and expects results by the end of 2004. If these results verify the independent tests, the compounds would have to undergo human clinical trials before they became available for release. Trials have a normal timeframe of seven to 10 years.
However, Dr Ramsdale said, they were a candidate for fast-track approval by the United States Federal Drug Authority as meeting an un-met significant medical need in life-threatening disease and therefore could be available in five years.
The company is seeking a partner to join it in this further development program, preferably a pharmaceutical or biotechnology organisation that has experience in clinical development of anti-bacterials.
This partner would have the expertise to run the trials and pay for them, or share their costs.
Drugs like penicillin have been used in the past to fight bacteria, but over decades the “superbugs” have developed resistance.
“When you hit them with drugs of a particular class they mutate and develop escape mechanisms,” Dr Ramsdale said.
The problem is becoming more serious as resistant infections are no longer
limited to hospital settings.
“There is an increasing occurrence of community-acquired infections,”
she said.
“In the US community, almost 50 per cent of strains of some infections display high or intermediate levels of resistance to penicillin.”
Alchemia was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange late in 2003 and is also achieving promising results against lung cancer in an animal model trial using its lead anti-cancer compound.
Last reviewed 19 January 2006