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Melinta Therapeutics, CARB-X Enter Partnership

Melinta to be awarded up to $6.2M to support the development of the company’s investigational pyrrolocytosine compounds

By: Betsy Louda

, Contract Pharma

Melinta Therapeutics has entered into a partnership with CARB-X, under which Melinta will be awarded up to $6.2 million to support the development of the company’s investigational pyrrolocytosine compounds.


Under the terms of the partnership, Melinta will receive an initial award of up to $2.3 million from CARB-X, with the possibility of $3.9 million in additional awards based on the achievement of certain project milestones.
 
Melinta’s novel pyrrolocytosine compounds are a novel class of antibiotics from the company’s ESKAPE Pathogen Program, a program based on Melinta’s proprietary drug discovery platform focused on developing breakthrough antibiotics for bacterial “superbugs” by targeting the bacterial ribosome. 
 
The pyrrolocytosines have been designed de novo, from the ground up, in a site not previously exploited by the many successful classes of antibiotics that target the ribosome. They are being developed to optimize properties that allow them to get in and stay in bacterial cells.
 
“Our structure-based design efforts to create and optimize the pyrrolocytosine class of antibiotics have shown exciting promise, with several compounds demonstrating comprehensive activity and preclinical effect across the full set of bacterial ‘superbugs,’” said Erin Duffy, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Melinta. “We believe this new class of antibiotics could be transformational in the fight against these urgent threats. The support and resources available through CARB-X will provide important assistance as we move to advance one or more pyrrolocytosines into clinical development.”

“This funding aims to speed the development of an exciting new class of antibiotics to treat patients with life-threatening Gram-negative infections and to enhance global health security. It’s vital we accelerate the discovery of new and innovative approaches to addressing the rising threat of drug resistance; it has been more than half a century since the last new class was approved,” said Kevin Outterson, executive director of CARB-X.

CARB-X was launched in August 2016 to accelerate pre-clinical product development in the area of antibiotic-resistant infections, one of the world’s greatest health threats. 

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