The need for novel antibiotics has been highlighted repeatedly as the ongoing evolution of antibiotic resistance periodically captures the public imagination. Despite the emergence of one “superbug” after another, the major pharmaceutical companies have made relatively small efforts in the discovery of new antibiotics.
This job has largely fallen to small companies such as Hsiri Therapeutics.
HT-01 is a novel topical compound being developed for both the treatment and the prophylaxis of gram-positive infections in susceptible patient populations. HT-01 is highly active against most gram-positive infections, including Methicllin Resistant Staphlococcal Aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus (VRE). The compound is stable, easy to formulate, and has other attributes that make it an ideal topical treatment.
HT-02 is the systemic drug that will be developed to treat serious gram-positive infections including MRSA and VRE. It will be of the same chemical scaffold as HT-01. There are currently several compounds being evaluated but there is no lead compound at this time. However, we anticipate that within 12 months, a lead compound will be chosen and pre-clinical development will have begun.
HT-03 is a highly potent anti-mycobacterial agent that is being developed to treat diseases caused by the Mycobacterium Avium-Intracellulare Complex (MAC). These diseases are primarily pneumonias and currently have no satisfactory treatment regimen. HT-03 is highly potent and has shown activity against this organism in-vitro, in tissue models, and in-vivo models.
HT-04 is a highly potent agent being developed for drug resistant Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Far from being a disease of the past, Tuberculosis, which infects approximately one of every three persons on earth, is a major world health problem. No longer confined to the third world, Tuberculosis, including drug-resistant strains, threatens western countries as well. Due to the emergence of highly drug resistant strains of the disease, this could translate into a major public health concern anywhere. HT-04 is the lead compound of a new class of agents that work by a mechanism of action different from the action of other drugs targeting TB.
HT-05 is a compound based on novel functional substitutions on the standard amino-penicillin frame. The substitutions are remarkable in their ability to augment the activity of the base compound, particularly against Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. It is thought that the additional chemical substitutions on the compound are responsible for several new activities that may include, enhanced penetration of the drug into the bacterium, hindrance of bacterial beta-lactamase enzymes, and reduction of bacterium’s efflux pumping of the drug