Acurx Pharmaceuticals to Enter Clinical Trials with First-In-Class Antibiotics to Treat Selected Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections
Friday, October 05, 2018
Acurx Pharmaceuticals, LLC announced today that it has entered into a scientific collaboration with the Research Service Division of WuXi AppTec ("WuXi") to further advance the Company's pipeline of novel DNA polymerase-inhibiting antibiotic candidates. Under the agreement, Acurx will engage WuXi for certain research and development activities and WuXi will enable the progression of Acurx's discovery pipeline of novel DNA polymerase IIIC inhibitors.
Acurx is a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on developing new antibiotics for difficult-to-treat bacterial infections. Acurx's lead product candidate, ACX-362E, is an oral antibiotic which targets the treatment of Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI). AXC-362E is expected to enter a Phase 1 clinical trial in Q4 2018 and has been granted QIDP (Qualified Infectious Disease Product) designation by FDA as an oral treatment for Clostridium difficile bacteria. Acurx's new class of antibiotics inhibit DNA polymerase IIIC and replication of selected Gram-positive bacteria.
Initially, WuXi will focus on advancing the Company's second discovery project of optimized derivatives of ACX-375C, for the treatment of VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) infections such as UTI (Urinary Tract Infections), Intraabdominal Infections and SSTI (Skin and Soft Tissue Infection), into pre-clinical studies by the end of 2019. Acurx intends to apply for QIDP designation by mid-2019 for use of ACX-375C derivatives to treat infections caused by VRE which is on FDA's priority pathogens list used to determine the granting of QIDP designation by FDA.
Additionally, the collaboration will utilize WuXi's state-of-the-art expertise in structure-based drug design, computational chemistry, chemistry synthesis and antibacterial biology to generate a series of novel compounds with potent activity against polymerase IIIC-dependent Gram-positive bacteria to build the Company's pipeline of new antibiotics.
"We are very pleased to be working with WuXi to build upon decades of research into pol IIIC inhibitors and the means of inhibiting pathogenesis through inhibition of this critical bacterial enzyme. WuXi's state-of-the-art computational chemistry and molecular design tools have the potential to refine the activity and improve the utility of this class of molecules," said Robert J. DeLuccia, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Acurx.
"The Research Service Division of WuXi AppTec is very enthusiastic about working with the Acurx team as a strategic collaborator. We are pleased to provide mission-critical scientific support to an early-stage biopharmaceutical company in the discovery and preclinical development of new molecular entities in a disease area with challenging unmet medical needs," said Steve Yang, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer of WuXi AppTec.
