Discontinued Achaogen program aids Pew’s antibiotic research efforts

Achaogen recently announced that it would supply data from its discontinued LpxC inhibitor antibiotic research program to Pew’s Shared Platform for Antibiotic Research and Knowledge (SPARK).

“By sharing these data with the wider scientific community, Achaogen has demonstrated true leadership, which we hope can become a model for other companies,” Allan Coukell, Pew’s senior director of health programs, said. “This move will help create a scientific resource that can benefit any researcher or organization working to find new antibiotics.”

SPARK is an open access effort for researchers to advance efforts against drug resistance and create new types of antibiotics. It’s unusual for a private biopharmaceutical company to supply such data, as the field is notoriously guarded about potentially proprietary knowledge and patentable items, so for this data to be given to SPARK is a huge step. The data Achaogen supplied goes into new ways to attack Gram-negative bacteria, though they discontinued research when they discovered toxicity in their efforts.

“Sharing our data with SPARK is part of Achaogen’s ongoing commitment to address the antibiotic resistance crisis,” Achaogen CEO Blake Wise said. “Even though our LpxC program has ended, the data remain valuable, and we hope that our research will help SPARK users contribute to the discovery of novel antibiotics that can treat Gram-negative infections.”

To overcome the tough defenses of Gram-negative bacteria — a dangerous, highly resistant pathogen — new drugs are needed. Specifically, ones that operate on an entirely different molecular structure from traditional antibiotics. Pew noted, however, that only one of 17 antibiotics currently in development to treat Gram-negative pathogens creates a new drug class.