Novacta achieves second milestone on CDI drug

Novacta Therapeutics, the anti-infectives development arm of UK-based Novacta Biotech, has achieved the first milestone in a strategic  translational award received from the Wellcome Trust to develop a new  drug to treat Clostridium difficile infections.

The achievement triggers the second tranche of a L3.5-million ($5.2  million) award granted in January 2008. Novacta will enter the selected  drug candidate, NVB302, into formal preclinical development.

C. difficile infections are a growing and serious problem, associated  with twice as many deaths in UK hospitals last year as  methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Cases of CDIs, which occur  in the lower digestive tract, rose by 22% in the past year and affected  more than 15,500 people over 65 in the first quarter of 2007. New  anti-infective drugs are needed to target C. difficile without depleting  other beneficial bacteria in the gut.