AstraZeneca, GSK and Basilea join public-private project against carbapenem resistance

The UK's AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Switzerland's Basilea (SIX: BSLN) are joining a public-private funded project to combat carbapenem resistance.

They join 18 European academic partners to launch a new project under the Innovative Medicines Initiative-funded New Drugs 4 Bad Bugs program. COMBACTE-CARE (Combatting Bacterial resistance in Europe-Carbapenem-Resistance) will bring innovative studies and activities related to treating infections caused by carbapenem-resistant enterobateriaceae. University Medical Center Utrecht is the project’s managing entity.

The $90.1 million project aims, over its five-year span, to understand how patients with carbapenem-resistant infections are managed, with a focus on best available treatment and clinical outcomes. It will develop new tools to detect resistance and conduct clinical trials with AstraZeneca’s antibiotic combination product aztreonam-avibactam. This drug is in development for the treatment of serious infections due to metallo‐β‐lactamase producing Gram‐negative pathogens, a difficult to treat sub-type of CRE infections.