Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1173622
36 ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE & STEWARDSHIP Superbugs focus of new coalition of scientists, biotech leaders By Mackenzie Bean A group of scientists, policy experts and biotech lead- ers launched a coalition Aug. 21 to combat superbugs. e Working to Fight AMR coalition will work to raise awareness about antimicro- bial resistance and advocate for policies that incentivize drugmakers to develop new antibiotics. Coalition members include: • Greg Frank, PhD, director of infectious disease policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and director of the Working to Fight AMR coalition • Aleks Engel, PhD, director of REPAIR Impact Fund at Novo Holdings • Julie Louise Gerberding, MD, former CDC director and executive vice presi- dent and chief patient officer at Merck • Eric Kimble, chief commercial officer at Entasis erapeutics • Werner Lanthaler, PhD, CEO at Evotec • Evan Loh, MD, CEO at Paratek Pharma- ceuticals and chairman of the Antimi- crobials Working Group • Kevin Outterson, co-director of the health law program and professor at Boston University School of Law • Ruben Tommasi, PhD, chief scientific officer at Entasis erapeutics • Zachary Zimmerman, PhD, CEO at Forge erapeutics n New drug regimen proves effective against highly resistant TB strain By Anne-Marie Kommers A clinical trial has had a 90 percent success rate in treating the deadliest strain of tuberculosis, which is resistant to the four types of antibiotics typically used to fight the disease, according to The New York Times. The trial, called Nix-TB, has only enrolled 109 patients. But its success is high- ly encouraging for a lethal disease with no previously known cure. The FDA approved the last of Nix-TB's three drugs, pretomanid, on Aug. 14, as long as the drug is used with the two previously approved ones, bedaquiline and linezolid. The TB strain, known as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, killed 52 of 53 people infected when it was first identified in a 2006 outbreak in South Africa. There have been about 30,000 confirmed cases of the disease in over 100 countries, and experts believe three-quarters of patients die before receiving a diagnosis. Of those who receive typical treatment, only 34 percent survive. The new regimen requires only five pills a day for six months and has "man- ageable" side effects, according to physicians running the trial. In contrast, typical treatment in South Africa requires patients to take up to 40 pills per day for up to two years. Injections used to treat the disease in other countries have side effects including deafness and kidney failure. The World Health Organization is expected to adopt the FDA's approval of the drugs soon, meaning the new treatment could be used worldwide. n How scientists are repurposing old drugs to combat antibiotic resistance By Mackenzie Bean S cientists may be able to repurpose older drugs, like bithionol, to kill drug-resistant bacteria, suggest the findings of a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Researchers from Providence, R.I.-based Brown University, Atlanta-based Emory University and Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University conducted the study, which sought to identify an existing drug that could attack a bacte- ria's membrane to eliminate infections, according to NPR. They tested more than 80,000 drugs on worms infected with methicillin-re- sistant Staphylococcus aureus. While 185 drugs effectively eliminated the bacteria without killing the worms, only a handful of drugs penetrated the bacteria's membrane, including bithionol. Researchers found the drug could kill MRSA in a petri dish within 24 hours. A low dose of bithionol, combined with the antibiotic gentamicin, could also kill 90 percent of MRSA infections in mice. "I really think that the future for overcoming antibiotic resistance is these combination therapies where we can use lower doses of the more toxic anti- biotics," study author William Wuest, PhD, associate professor of chemistry at Emory, told NPR. n