Project description
New drugs that overcome antibiotic resistance may be headed for clinical trials
Gram-negative bacteria have an external membrane that prevents antibiotics from penetrating. Increasing multi-drug resistance in Gram-negative bacteria is becoming a major public health challenge and the EU-funded GNA NOW project is rising to meet it. As part of the EU's new Antimicrobial Resistance Accelerator (AMR) Programme, academic and industry experts plan to discover and test the most promising antibiotic compounds over the next six years and bring a handful of them to clinical trials.
Objective
AntiMicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a global and serious threat to human health. Gram-negative bacteria are widely regarded as the culprit representing one of the gravest dangers. Indeed, there is a dearth of new agents able to address AMR in Gram-negative bacteria, especially compounds with novel modes of action. Finding and developing such compounds represents a huge scientific challenge, one that requires the collaboration of stakeholders bringing many different kinds of expertise. The world is coming together to tackle this issue and public-private partnerships represent an attractive way to hasten the pace and increase the probability of successfully identifying and developing novel antibiotics.
Under the global umbrella of the AMR Accelerator, the Gram-Negative Antibacterials-NOW (GNA NOW) consortium pledges to a 6-years commitment to bring together key European academic and private experts in antibiotic discovery and development in order to support and manage a portfolio of novel mode of action drugs against Gram-negative bacteria. Starting with three initial compounds/series, dedicated project teams will work together to define and execute the most efficient project plans. The consortium will put in place robust governance and management structures to ensure that the most promising compounds are pursued diligently. Ultimately, the goal of GNA NOW is to progress one compound through completion of phase I studies plus one compound reaching Investigational New Drug (IND) stage and/or up to two compounds reaching clinical development candidate stage.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
3521 AL Utrecht
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.