€85 million to fight Gram-negative pathogens

Over 30 European universities, research institutes, and companies are joining forces in a six-year, €85 million program to develop novel antibiotics against Gram-negative pathogens. Supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and led by GlaxoSmithKline and Uppsala University, the ENABLE (European Gram-Negative Antibacterial Engine) project also includes open calls for candidates outside the consortium.

The world faces a growing epidemic of antibiotic resistance, yet only two new classes of antibiotics have been brought to the market in the last 30 years. The discovery and development of new antibiotics is essential to maintain medical advances but poses significant challenges, particularly for antibiotics active against Gram-negative bacteria (such as E. coli). Such bacteria have effective barriers against drugs, making treatment difficult, resistance likely and development costs and risks high. Any new antibiotics brought to the market would likely be used cautiously to delay the development of resistance, adding an additional financial challenge in recouping development costs.

In response to such barriers in the development of novel antibiotics, the IMI, a research partnership between the European Commission and major pharmaceutical companies (through the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), has launched New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB), a series of projects to target the bottlenecks in the development and effective use of novel antibiotics. The ENABLE project is the third within the series.

The project spans 13 countries and brings together 32 partners to establish a significant antibacterial drug discovery platform for the progression of research programs through discovery and phase 1 clinical trials. A preliminary portfolio of programs will be expanded through open calls to create a full development pipeline, with the ultimate goal to complete phase 1 clinical trials of at least one novel antibacterial for Gram-negative infections by 2019.

The joint public and private investment aims to mobilise expertise from universities, research institutes and industry in Europe to meet global challenges.

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