Industry News: A New Approach to Tackle Serious Bacterial Infections

The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), Eisai Co., Ltd. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) have signed an agreement for GARDP to access and screen components of Eisai and Takeda's chemical libraries. Both libraries will be tested by the Institut Pasteur Korea in the hope of discovering novel compounds with antibacterial activity. This multi- partner agreement supports GARDP's efforts to tackle serious bacterial infections by developing antibiotics while endeavoring to ensure their sustainable access.

With few antibiotics in development, antimicrobial resistance is a major and rapidly growing global public health concern. Around 700,000 people die of drug-resistant infections every year¹. Serious bacterial infections, and in particular Gram-negative bacterial infections, have been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global public health priority.

The compounds that will be screened have emerged from Eisai and Takeda's latest medicinal chemistry efforts and have never been screened for antibacterial activity. They will be tested against bacteria identified as a critical priority for research and development of new antibiotics in WHO's global priority pathogen list². Through this screening, GARDP seeks to identify novel compounds suitable for further optimization and development.

"GARDP is very excited about this partnership. Not only can partnerships like this accelerate the discovery of new antibiotics, they can also support the pharmaceutical sector in staying engaged in antibiotic R&D," said Dr. Seamus O'Brien, Research and Development Director at GARDP.

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"Overcoming antibacterial resistance is key to achieve universal health coverage. GARDP's approach allows us to develop a drug from early exploratory to preclinical and clinical studies all the way to patients."

"Eisai strongly identifies with GARDP's efforts to discover novel antibiotics to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections which have become a threat to human beings and are pleased to provide our compound library for screening. We sincerely hope new medicines will be discovered through this partnership to realize a world in which lives are no longer lost to drug-resistant bacteria," said Dr. Kappei Tsukahara, Senior Group Officer, Head of Human Health Care Data Creation Center, Head of Tsukuba Research Laboratories at Eisai.

"Takeda is delighted to contribute to this creative partnership and extend our commitment to promoting the discovery of novel treatments to treat life-threatening antibiotic resistance," said Dr. Ceri Davies, Head of the Neuroscience Drug Discovery Unit at Takeda.

"We are honored to collaborate with GARDP on a global project of great importance to find a solution for antibiotic resistance. The world needs global cooperative action to prevent the post-antibiotic era. This work, instigated by GARDP, is an active response to this urgent global demand that connects Institut Pasteur Korea's resources with the technology of global pharmaceutical companies. We believe that together we can achieve much more," said Dr. Wangshick Ryu, CEO of the Institut Pasteur Korea.

(1) O'Neill, J. (Chair) (2016). Tackling drug-resistance globally: Final Report and recommendations.
(2) WHO. (2017). Global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research, discovery, and development of new antibiotics. World Health Organization.