V. Bala Subramanian
Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) is a global emergency that affects the entire spectrum of clinical practice and is not only a problem when someone contracts infections. This is not easily intuitive to most who still view AMR as a problem of the Infectious disease (ID) specialists in the clinic and microbiologists in the diagnostic labs. Thanks to AMR, simple surgical procedures will become untenable. The most advanced cardio thoracic surgeries to treat heart ailments will be derailed due to the humble drug-resistant bacterium. Cancer treatments, which offer life extensions and improved quality of life, will become useless when the patient now succumbs to infection and not cancer. Tackling AMR is a combination of scientific innovation, responsible social behavior and strong political will. India is at the epicenter of the AMR problem. Antibiotic use is a major driver of resistance. India is the world’s largest consumer of antibiotics for human health. Access to antibiotics in India is easy which portends well for the large proportion of India’s population that has thus far had poor access to these life-saving drugs. However, this also sets the stage for indiscriminate use that leads to sub-optimal use of antibiotics. Bacteria when exposed to sub-lethal levels mutate and develop antibiotic resistance. The convergence of factors such as poor public health infrastructure, rising incomes, a high burden of disease, and cheap, unregulated sales of antibiotics has created ideal conditions for a rapid rise in resistant infections in India. BUGWORKS is at the forefront of the scientific innovation to deliver novel antibiotics, which will address the AMR issue. With its years of domain experience and through its innovative approaches BUGWORKS has developed a stealth strategy by which antibiotics successfully by-pass efflux pumps, which are a key defence barrier present on the bacterial cell envelope. The successful outcome of these discovery efforts resulted in the introduction of a new class of broad spectrum anti-bacterial drug candidates, which are effective on all known resistant bacterial strains. The drug candidate from BUGWORKS targets the WHO 2017 R&D Priority Pathogen List & the CDC 2013 Urgent, Serious and concerning infection threats. It is a first-in-class novel chemical entity (NCE) that exhibits potent killing of pan-resistant superbugs such as E. coli (including ESBLs, NDM-1), S. aureus (including MRSA), K. pneumoniae (including KPCs), multi-drug resistant A. baumannii, multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa, E. faecalis (including VRE), multi-drug resistant N. gonorrhoeae, H. influenza, Proteus sp., Citrobacter sp., Morganella sp., C. difficile, S. pyogenes, S. pneumoniae, S. epidermidis and bio- threat pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Francisella tulerensis, Burkholderia mallei, Burkholderia pseudomallei etc. The lead has excellent animal efficacy with good safety profile in pre-clinical species. The drug candidate is poised to enter Phase 1 studies in early 2020.