Rib-X Pharmaceuticals and MGH enter into collaborative research agreement

Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs for the treatment of serious multi-drug-resistant infections announced today it has entered into a collaborative research agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

Under the science plan for the collaboration, Dr. David Hooper of MGH will evaluate Rib-X's novel fluoroquinolone, delafloxacin, in an established animal model to determine resistance development and to validate the activity and mechanism of action of delafloxacin against microorganisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

"Treating infections that are resistant to the antibiotics currently available to us has become increasingly challenging," Dr. Hooper said. "We are interested to learn more about the unusual properties of this specific drug relative to other members of its class and its potential effect on controlling difficult and dangerous infections."

Delafloxacin, which is ready to enter Phase 3 clinical trials, is a novel, broad-spectrum, next-generation fluoroquinolone, that has demonstrated better activity than other quinolones against Gram-positive bacteria, including isolates of MRSA that are quinolone-resistant.

"The opportunity to work with Dr. David Hooper on the in vivo mechanism of action of delafloxacin is a very important extension of the research we have done here at Rib-X," said Susan Froshauer, Ph.D., Rib-X's President and CEO. "Dr. Hooper is a well-known expert on fluoroquinolones and this collaboration will demonstrate the potential for delafloxacin to take its place in the arsenal of drugs for battling recalcitrant quinolone-resistant infections."

Rib-X previously announced positive results from a Phase 2 trial utilizing the IV formulation of delafloxacin in complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSI). Delafloxacin successfully completed two additional Phase 2 trials with the oral formulation. In microbiological tests of large numbers of contemporary clinical isolates of quinolone resistant MRSA, delafloxacin has been shown to be at least 32-fold more potent than levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, gatifloxacin and moxifloxacin. Delafloxacin also has been shown to be more potent than existing quinolones against a range of Gram-positive, anaerobic, and Gram-negative organisms. Rib-X is currently developing both IV and oral formulations of delafloxacin for use in surgical prophylaxis and other therapeutic areas.