Bayer antibiotics spin-out Aicuris bags IMI grant

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health today. Bayer antibiotics spin out Aicuris has launched a novel clinical programme to face the threat. “AIC499 is a novel potentially resistance-breaking antibiotic against a broad range of multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria”, Aicuris trumpeted following enrolment of the first patient to a PhaseI/II safety trail. However, the clinical trial funded through the Innovative Medicines Intiative’s €167m COMBACTE-MAGNET programme is just another innovative beta-lactam antibiotic but does not represent a novel drug class.

Within the study, which will be conducted in Vienna and which is cofunded by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations (EFPIA), Aicuris researchers will assess safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of single ascending doses of intravenous AIC499 in 48 healthy volunteers. The single dose part will be followed by a multiple ascending dose part in 36 volunteers.

“In combination with a beta-lactamase inhibitor (BLI), AIC499 has already shown very potent antibacterial preclinical activity against Gram-negative pathogens”, said Dr. Holger Zimmermann, CEO of Aicuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH. Preclinically, the compound fought of infections with drug resistant Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter species. If successful in Phase I, the IMI will also fund Phase II trials in patients with complicated urinary tract (cUTI) and intra-abdominal infections (cIAI).

First results are expected to come in by mid-2017.