An article on fiercepharmamarketing.com highlighted the fact that the early success of Avycaz “bodes well” for other gram-negative antibiotics that are making their way through the pipeline–“especially the ones that work on bugs for which all current options fail” according to Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat.
We spoke with Graham Lumsden, CEO at Motif Bio Plc for his thoughts: “Antibiotics prescribed in hospitals in the US have been priced at around $3,500 for a course of treatment for one patient. Avycaz was launched this year at $12,000 per patient and seems to have been well accepted by hospitals. This is tangible evidence of the better pricing for antibiotics that is needed to encourage companies such as Motif to invest in antibiotic research and development.”
Motif Bio Plc (LON:MTFB) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, specialising in the development of novel antibiotics that are designed to be effective against serious and life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria. Our lead product candidate, iclaprim, is being developed for the treatment of the most common and serious bacterial infections such as acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) and hospital acquired bacterial pneumonia (HABP), including those caused by resistant strains such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Two Phase III ABSSSI clinical trials are on track to be completed in 2017 and if approved, iclaprim could be ready for commercialization in 2018. The Company is in discussions with pharmaceutical companies and universities to build a pipeline of innovative antibiotics targeting Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.
