A new antibiotic that could help fight deadly drug-resistant infections has entered its final stage of human trials, Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has announced.
The antibiotic, zosurabalpin, developed in collaboration with Harvard University, is being tested against Acinetobacter baumannii, a hospital superbug listed by the CDC as an “urgent threat”.
The bacterium is known to cause life-threatening hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia and sepsis. No new antibiotics have been developed to combat it in over 50 years.
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The drug is now in its Phase 3 trial and will be tested on around 400 patients worldwide. If successful, it could be the first in a new class of antibiotics to receive approval in decades.
“This is a critical step in our mission to tackle antimicrobial resistance, which is one of the most serious infectious disease challenges of our time,” said Michael Lobritz, global head of infectious diseases at Roche.
Larry Tsai, senior vice president at Genentech, a Roche subsidiary, added, “Drug-resistant bacteria are a global problem. The innovative approach used in this study may also help uncover new ways to develop future antibiotics.”
Acinetobacter baumannii poses a severe threat in hospital settings, especially to patients with weakened immune systems. Globally, sepsis claims around 11 million lives annually, while community-acquired pneumonia is responsible for 3–4 million deaths each year, particularly affecting the elderly.
