This story just popped on every newsfeed I frequent....if CTIX does not employ PR professionals they should...they should be on the phone with every outlet who published this story with the CTIX facts...this requires an effort far beyond a simple press release...a public relations impression....I.e. a consumer who views this news is extremely valuable..far more valuable than an consumer who is reached directly by a company through purchased media...
A story written by the press about a company is far more credible than an advertisement by that company..it is perceived as more reliable because of the filter of the news media and thus more valuable than commercial messaging...
Teixobactin is a very interesting compound. Upon cursory initial review of the article, some random thoughts:
Half life of teixobactin is ~5 hours (in mice) vs ~14 hours for brilacidin and ~5 hours for vancomycin.
Teixobactin is a peptidoglycan synthesis inhibitor, similar to vancomycin. Both seem to inhibit lipid II cell wall precursor production, thus preventing gram positive bacteria from forming their cell membranes. Teixobactin also works on lipid III precursor:
No resistance to teixobactin developed after 30 serial passages. Brilacidin showed no resistance up to 40 or so if I recall correctly.
It took ~30 years for vancomycin resistance to develop (VRE). The authors and NovoBiotic CEO predict at least 30 years for resistance to teixobactin. I imagine the same could be estimated for brilacidin?
Teixobactin seemed to "cure" mice with a single low IV dose (0.2 mg/kg), compared to a higher dose needed for a single dose cure with vancomycin (2.75 mg/kg). In practice in humans, vancomycin is given ~20 mg/kg x2/day for 14 days (often shorter than full 14 days duration).
Brilacidin seems to "cure" humans safely with a single 0.6-0.8 mg/kg IV dose!
Teixobactin seemed to kill fairly rapidly vs. vancomycin, but it's unclear how quickly vs. brilacidin.
I'm not sure which of the attributes listed above will be most important in predicting how teix. will perform in the clinic (IN 2+ YEARS). Great that it's resistant to resistance, and kills quickly at low doses. It's relatively short half-life might require multiple doses, but this isn't clear.
NovoBiotic is privately held. They estimate $200M+ to bring the drug through development ...
Makes you appreciate B a little more. Cost us $5M to buy the IP, and $5-10M for the Phase IIb thus far, plus expect another $50-100M for the 2 Phase III trials??? for a drug that could do $1B in sales, resulting in $5B in market cap? Wow.
slcimmuno, agree with your take on things (and appreciate all your posts).
I am jealous of all the press they are getting. Their methods of compound development are also very impressive (found in the head of R&D's back yard!). They claim first new kind of antibiotic in 20+ years, but I don't think they are including our defensin mimetics, of which B is the first. The press (and others) likewise remain clueless that we have a drug much further along that is a single dose, that is also unlikely to have much/any resistance develop against it, and which is as safe and effective as daptomycin. I'm looking forward to the word getting out about B, and hearing some more about B,P,K, and other defensin mimetics next week.
Hah - seems like the CTIX IHUB board is making the rounds putting the word out about brilacidin. CTIX should hire you guys and gals to do the PR. Nice work all.
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