Selcia Ltd. has entered into a drug discovery collaboration with Cantab Anti-Infectives to accelerate Cantab’s development program for improved antibiotics for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections based on the polymyxin nucleus.
 
Polymyxins have become an important ‘last resort’ therapy for certain MDR Gram-negative infections, but have complex pharmacokinetics and dose-limiting toxicities. Polymyxins are the only effective antibiotic to act specifically on Gram-negative bacteria. The companies hope to harness this mechanism of action into improved therapeutic entities. 
 
Dr. Hans Fliri, chief executive officer of Selcia, said, “We are delighted that Cantab has selected Selcia as its discovery partner for this project and we look forward to a successful conclusion to the collaboration.”
 
Dr. Mike Dawson, chief executive officer of Cantab, said, “When we wanted to complement our internal medicinal chemistry efforts we identified Selcia as our partner of choice for this project as it has a highly successful track-record working on complex medicinal chemistry projects and identifying development candidates from challenging starting points.”