Helperby Therapeutics and Cadila make progress on first antibiotic resistance breaker

Helperby Therapeutics, a spin-out drug discovery company from St George’s University of London, UK, and privately held Indian pharma company Cadila Pharmaceuticals are developing potentially life-saving treatments just six months after signing their agreement.

The companies are responded to the challenge laid down by the G8 Science Ministers in their statement last June where the ministers noted antimicrobial resistance was “a major health security challenge of the twenty first century” by developing the world’s first antibiotic resistance breaker.

Helperby has discovered that combining its patented resistance breakers with obsolete antibiotics can produce effective microbial kill rates with significantly lower or no toxicity to the patient. The partnership is developing a potential treatment against the world’s most deadly superbugs, gram-negative carbapenem-resistant organisms. The last line of defense for patients critically ill with this deadly organism is colistin – an antibiotic with serious side effects and to which resistance is already beginning to emerge. The drug discovery company has entered into collaboration with Cadila, whose facilities are at the forefront of the fight to bring antibiotic treatments focused on providing affordable treatments to patients.

Urgent help for patients needed