British biopharmaceuticals company, Helperby Therapeutics, has developed a sustainable solution to combat antimicrobial resistance — Antibiotic Resistance Breakers (ARBs) — which may reach the market as early as 2020.
Antibacterial resistance
This new ARB technology reportedly rejuvenates existing antibiotics into long-term effective combination therapies. Additionally, the rejuvenation process can be performed repeatedly on different combinations of existing antibiotics to outsmart resistance.
“New classes of antibiotics are difficult to develop, and none have been marketed for over 30 years,” said Professor Anthony Coates, chief scientific officer of Helperby Therapeutics. “It is therefore imperative we keep existing antibiotics working.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified an immediate threat from three critical priority pathogens, for which there are currently limited antibiotic protection. These are CRE (Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae), pseudomonas aeruginosa (Carbapenem-resistant) and acinetobacter (Carbapenem-resistant)
“We are one of only 6 companies in the world that have new antibiotics in clinical development which are potentially effective against all three of WHO’s critical priority pathogens,” Coates added. “Helperby’s ARBs are an imminent solution to all three of the critical priority pathogens as identified by the WHO. We are potentially just 3 – 5 years away from the market.”