British biotech firm Destiny Pharma is aiming to raise more than 10 million pounds ($12.9 million) of new equity to develop drugs that target antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, or superbugs, in hospitals, it said on Friday.
Company founder Bill Love said studies had shown its XF-73 drug candidate to be effective against the superbug MRSA, without resistance emerging through 55 repeated exposures. "The drugs are differentiated from traditional antibiotics and anti-bacterial drug approaches in that their mechanism of action targets bacterial cell membranes, killing bacteria very rapidly," he said in an interview. "Due to that mechanism of action in trials and studies we've seen no emergence of bacterial resistance to excess drug action."
Scientists are racing to develop new drugs to prevent and treat life-threatening infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Destiny Pharma's XF-73 had completed five early stage trials, he said, and the funds raised in the listing would take the drug to the cusp of phase III studies in the prevention of post-surgical Staphylococcus aureus infections during 2019.