The FINANCIAL — Merck on September 12 reaffirmed its commitment to discovering and developing novel medicines and vaccines for a broad range of infectious diseases at the 50th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) being held in Boston.
At the conference, in addition to clinical data on late stage compounds, Merck scientists and their collaborators are scheduled to present results from studies of novel investigational antibiotic and antifungal agent candidates.
“The apparent rise in emerging pathogens and recent evidence of bacterial resistance to some current therapies underscores the important need for continued innovation in the ways we fight infectious disease," said Roger Pomerantz, MD, senior vice president, and Global Franchise Head, Infectious Diseases, Merck Research Laboratories. “Merck continues to build on its legacy of breakthroughs in this critical area and remains committed to the development of a broad portfolio of investigational anti-infective agents designed to treat viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections.”
Studies will be presented of MK-7655 a developmental beta-lactamase inhibitor that has shown activity against class A and class C carbapenemases, which are increasing in prevalence worldwide and are believed to play a significant role in bacterial resistance. Preclinical data from a series of in vitro and in vivo studies to be presented at ICAAC show that MK-7655 may restore the activity of a commonly used antibiotic agent for serious infections against some resistant strains including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Citrobacter freundii. In addition studies will be presented for the antifungal candidate MK-3118 an oral glucan synthase inhibitor currently in early phase development for fungal infections.
Discussion about this post