LEAD Therapeutics' LT-29 antibiotic effective against most common antibiotic resistant bacteria

Sep 16 2009

LEAD Therapeutics, a privately held drug discovery company, announced the discovery of a novel antibiotic with potent activity against many of the most common antibiotic resistant bacteria. LEAD will present the new glycopeptide antibiotic, LT-29, for the first time at the 49^th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC). LT-29 is in preclinical development to treat serious infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other gram-positive bacteria.

Dr. Daniel Chu, Vice President of Chemistry at LEAD Therapeutics, who is presenting the information on LT-29 as a poster, commented, “Our program to optimize both in vitro and in vivo properties of a new antibiotic has resulted in a compound with an excellent spectrum of antibacterial activity and efficacy in preclincal models. LT-29 is a very promising compound for treatment of serious bacterial infections where vancomycin may not give satisfactory results.”

LEAD selected LT-29 for development after synthesizing and testing several hundred compounds. Data presented at ICAAC showed that LT-29 has greater activity than the standard antibiotic vancomycin against a range of gram positive bacteria, including MRSA, strains with reduced sensitivity to vancomycin (vancomycin intermediate Staphylococcus aureus, “VISA”), and bacteria resistant to vancomycin (vancomycin resistant Enterococci, “VRE”). LT-29 also has improved pharmacokinetics compared with vancomycin. These properties resulted in excellent activity in animal models of Staphylococcus aureus infection, including the challenging MRSA mouse lung infection model where vancomycin has limited efficacy.

LEAD has begun exploring possibilities for corporate partnering to accelerate the molecule’s development. Dr. Peter Myers, LEAD Therapeutics Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are convinced that LT-29 has the potential to be an important antibiotic, and have been encouraged by the initial response in our partnering discussions.”