Swiss biopharma BioVersys is collaborating with drug discovery and development CRO Aptuit on the discovery and development of new targets and drug candidates against Gram-negative bacteria, including drug-resistant strains. An existing BioVersys target will be included in the partnership.
BioVersys is exploiting its transcriptional regulatory inhibitory compounds (TRIC) platform to identify and develop drugs that inactivate bacterial resistance mechanisms. The firm is developing a series of leads against multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis and nosocomial bacterial strains.
BioVersys has an ongoing collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and a consortium at the University of Lille to develop a preclinical candidate for the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. During early 2014, BioVersys teamed up with SARomics Biostructures as part of an international project to develop approaches to blocking bacterial resistance genes.
Commenting on the latest collaboration with Aptuit, Bioversys CEO Marc Gitzinger, Ph.D., said, “We are excited to collaborate with Aptuit on this project as they have a proven track record in antibacterial drug discovery. At BioVersys, we focus on the continuous development of our TRIC technology and on new targets to address the global health threat caused by MDR bacteria.”
Jonathan Goldman, M.D., Aptuit's CEO, added, “I am delighted that Aptuit has been selected to support the development of Bioversys' innovative project pipeline. This is the result of our continued investment and collaborative approach in this research field.”
Within the last week, The Dementia Discovery Fund reported acquiring a central nervous system-focused small-molecule library from Aptuit and establishing a partnership with the firm to discover small-molecule candidates against novel dementia-related targets. In January, Aptuit and Chiesi Farmaceutici set up a joint project to identify compounds for the potential treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
