• The rapid growth of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is staggering, particularly when considering the slow rate at which new antibiotics are being developed and made available to patients¹
• International health authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), continue to sound the alarm to promote increased preparedness, save human lives and avoid a heavy financial burden on healthcare systems^2,3
• Debiopharm is one of the main sponsors and panel participants of the 2023 World Antimicrobial Resistance (World AMR) Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — a conference gathering key AMR stakeholders including international government agencies, policy associations, and healthcare industry professionals

Debiopharm (www.debiopharm.com), a privately-owned, Swiss-based, biopharmaceutical company aiming to establish tomorrow’s standard-of-care to cure cancer and infectious diseases, today announced their participation in the keynote panel and antibiotic development track sessions at the 2023 World AMR conference from September 7^th – 8^th, 2023.

Debiopharm’s panelist Morgane Vanbiervliet, Market Intelligence & Business Development Manager, Infectious Diseases, is part of the AMR preparedness keynote panel to be moderated by Bruce Y. Lee from Forbes and involving representatives from the CDC, Menarini Group, IFPMA and the AMR Action Fund. A further Debiopharm-sponsored breakout session, moderated by Dr. Ricardo Chaves, Executive Medical Director, will feature Dr. L. Clifford McDonald, Associate Director for Science in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the CDC, explaining the relevance of novel microbiome-sparing antibiotics in combating AMR, and the potential need for new regulatory approval and reimbursement pathways.*

“It’s important to harness these open dialogues between public organizations and the infectious disease industry experts at World AMR to produce action that can prepare us to face the emerging wave of resistant infections,” explained Morgane Vanbiervliet, Market Intelligence & Business Development Manager, Infectious Diseases, Debiopharm. “We know that uncontrollable infectious diseases are everybody’s business, and that our preparation efforts must involve the reinforcement of prevention measures, better stewardship education, and sustainable market pathways for new effective treatments.”

“The CDC recognizes the importance of the human microbiome as it provides key resistance to human colonization with multidrug-resistant pathogens. Along with products that will reduce the degree of colonization (i.e. pathogen reduction), or drugs that will restore the microbiome, we need therapeutic antibiotics that spare the microbiome, by being highly-selective for only specific pathogens.” expressed Dr. L. Clifford McDonald, Associate Director for Science in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, CDC.

Last year’s special report from the CDC on the impact of COVID-19 on antimicrobial resistance revealed that 6 of the 18 most alarming bacterial menaces cost the US more that $4.6 billion each year and thousands of human lives.⁴ The agency’s 18 bacterial and fungal threats include 2 pathogens for which Debiopharm is currently developing new antibiotics: Neisseria gonorrhoeae and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Debiopharm’s FabI inhibitor therapies are part of a new pathogen-specific antibiotic class that is being researched for its capacity to effectively treat a single type of bacteria and thereby preserve the microbiome and avoid subsequent spread of AMR.

About afabicin

Afabicin (Debio 1450) is Debiopharm’s first-in-class FabI inhibitor against Staphylococcus spp., whose methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are high on the WHO global priority pathogen list and deemed a “serious threat” by the CDC. Afabicin can be administered orally or IV and selectively targets Staphylococcus’ essential bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis. Promising results have been obtained in a comparative double-blind Phase 2 trial with afabicin in acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections. Currently, a Phase 2 trial in bone and joint infections is being conducted in several countries comparing afabicin to standard antibiotics.

About Debio 1453

Analogous to afabicin, the preclinical compound Debio 1453 is a potential first in class pathogen-specific drug targeting the essential bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis pathway. Debio 1453 is administered orally to treat Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria causing the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, a cause of serious and permanent health issues including infertility, ectopic pregnancy, cardiovascular and neurological problems.

Debiopharm’s fight against antimicrobial resistance

Debiopharm, an innovation-focused, Swiss biopharmaceutical company is one of the few privately owned companies developing novel class antibiotics to combat hard-to-treat infections. Through their unique partnership-based business model, the company is advancing pathogen-specific antibiotics from early stage through phase II clinical research with afabicin, specifically targeting staphylococci, being the most clinically advanced for the treatment of bone and joint infections. As a result of high selectivity, FabI inhibitors specifically target selected pathogens while preserving intestinal microbiota and meet all four WHO 2020 innovation criteria: new chemical class, new target, new mode of action and no cross-resistance to other antibiotic classes.

For more information, please visit www.debiopharm.com

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References

^[1] Morrison L, Zembower TR. Antimicrobial resistance. Gastrointest Endosc Clin N Am. 2020 Oct;30(4):619-635.

^[2] Antimicrobial resistance surveillance in Europe 2023–2021 data. www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289058537

^[3] CDC Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/threats-report/2019-ar-threats-report-508.pdf

^[4] COVID-19 U.S. Impact on Antimicrobial Resistance. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/covid19-impact-report-508.pdf

Disclosures

* Speaker disclosures: Dr. McDonald has no relevant financial or non-financial relationships to disclose. The findings and conclusions of this presentation are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Any use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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