New antibiotics for the ‘superbugs’

The antibiotics business is an arms race – with a constant R&D effort underway to find new antibiotics to keep pace with the ever-changing bugs. MRSA, a respiratory infection resistant to most common antibiotics, is an example of the new “superbugs” with which the global pharmaceutical industry is now contending.

Researchers based at the University of Surrey, England, have developed a technology to identify new antibiotic candidates – and they say one of them, from a strain of the familiar “strep” bacteria, shows promise of working on MRSA and other multi-resistant bugs. Their technology, which they call High-Frequency Recombination, creates strains of microbes capable of making novel chemicals, such as the new antibiotic. It’s a long way from market; Phase I clinical trials have yet to begin. But first-year sales of a new, high-power antibiotic can top $100 milllion.

The spin-out company, RecombinoGen Ltd., is based on research first conducted at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology by geneticists Prof. Colin P. Smith and Dr. Matthew Borg. The company now operates from the School of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences of the University of Surrey, and is looking to raise investment to develop the new antibiotic class further.