The Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are collaborating to develop a new class of antibacterials to combat the rise of certain drugresistant hospital-acquired infections, including those that lead to pneumonia. The collaboration is part of the Trust's Seeding Drug Discovery initiative.

GSK has received a £4 million award from the Trust to accelerate development of compounds for the treatment of Gram-negative bacteria, which are becoming increasingly resistant to multiple antibacterials. GSK will make a matching contribution in staff, equipment and other programme costs. The Trust will receive a financial consideration on any commercial product resulting from the collaboration.

The research will target Gram-negative bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, Klebsiella and Helicobacter (above), which are increasingly resistant to current antibacterials and commonly cause hospital-acquired pneumonia and septic shock, particularly in patients in intensive care units. Without adequate therapy, patients often confront a poor prognosis: mortality is high, and recovery, when it occurs, can be long and complicated.

Virtually no novel-mechanism antibacterials are in development to address this rising need. Gram-negative bacteria are particularly difficult to attack as they have an outer membrane surrounding the bacterial cell wall, which interferes with drug penetration.

The Wellcome Trust's £91m Seeding Drug Discovery initiative aims to assist researchers and companies, small and large, to take forward early-stage drug discovery projects in small-molecule therapeutics. It is intended that these projects will then be taken up for further research and development by industry.

Image credit: David Gregory and Debbie Marshall

See also

• Innovative approaches in drug development: see 'Restocking the medicine cabinet', 'Wellcome News' issue 50
• Seeding Drug Discovery initiative