A new antibiotic workaround for drug-resistant infections is the focus of a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense and VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
“Developing new antibiotics that represent an improvement over standard of care antibiotics is essential to national health security and global health efforts to combat antibiotic-resistant infections,” Rick Bright, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), said. “This unique public-private partnership will focus on adding a new tool to healthcare providers’ toolkits and to help them save lives in an incident involving some of the serious bioterrorism threats our country faces.”
VenatoRx has created a compound known as VNRX-5133 that combines with another drug — cefepime — to overcome stubborn antibiotic resistance. While that resistance has made some infections — such as hospital acquired bacterial pneumonia, ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia or complicated urinary tract infections — impervious to many modern medicines, this new combination could increase treatment options, as well as reduce costs and complications.
At DHHS, efforts are being overseen by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which views addressing antibiotic resistance as a matter of biodefense. They fear how terrorists or nations could utilize such resistant pathogens. As a result, BARDA will provide as much as $20.7 million over the next two years to VenatoRx to support development and studies necessary to ready the VNRX-5133 cocktail for an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Progress depending, the contract could be extended to as much as $86.8 million spread across six years. BARDA and VenatoRx will share the costs of all studies required to ready the drug for market. Meanwhile, the DoD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency will provide up to $10 million more for the drug’s nonclinical biodefense aspects.
“DTRA is thrilled to expand the interagency strategic partnership with BARDA to ensure critical public health and defense medical needs are met with an eye toward both civilian and military utility.” Ron Hann, director of the Chemical Biological Technologies Department in DTRA’s Research and Development Directorate, said. “These joint programs will ensure that we deliver FDA-approved therapies to the U.S. military forces to combat the threat of antibiotic resistant bioterrorism.”