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<p><b>Researching the Fight Against Infection</b></p> |
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<p>PLIVA's anti-infectives research is being conducted in three separate programs: |
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Macrolide research, New Antibiotics research, and Biodiversity discovery.</p> |
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<p>With its internationally acknowledged insight into macrolide chemistry, as |
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evidenced by its discovery of Azithromycin, PLIVA has entered into a strategic |
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co-operation with GlaxoWellcome (with the merger of SmithKline and Glaxo a novel |
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Joint Operating Committee is currently being set up) to identify a novel macrolide |
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antibiotic for world-wide development and marketing. The goal of this venture |
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is to identify a macrolide with improved efficacy, particularly against resistant |
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strains of bacteria. The program is currently keeping pace with its ambitious |
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plans and efforts are being focused on fine-tuning the derivatization process |
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in order to enter the development phase within the next year.</p> |
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<p align="center"><img src="p/OKrnd_ljudi_7.jpg" width="300" height="202"></p> |
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<p>The goal of PLIVA's second program is to find a novel anti-bacterial compound |
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class showing no cross-resistance with current antibiotics. In cooperation with |
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Althexis, Boston, USA, a company with leading expertise in structure-based drug |
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design and crystallography, researchers from both companies have identified |
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two novel scaffolds showing activity with <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> |
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models of infections. One compound class with promising <i>in vitro</i> and |
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<i>in vivo</i> activity is being further characterized in detail, and further |
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studies into other species and the testing of improved compounds is ongoing. |
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Other activities are focused on improving distinct scaffolds in iterative cycles |
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reacting specifically with the chosen target. The specific activity of two scaffolds |
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was confirmed experimentally, and the first compounds out of this series with |
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antibacterial activity were identified. Various companies have already approached |
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Althexis and PLIVA to participate in this program. A derivatization program |
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to identify a developmental candidate within the shortest possible time has |
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been fully established.</p> |
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<p>As an extension of its anti-bacterial program, PLIVA has licensed-in a novel |
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anti-fungal compound (PLD-118) from Bayer AG, Germany. This compound has demonstrated |
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excellent efficacy against the most common systemic fungal infections as well |
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as excellent tolerability and pharmacokinetic properties in various pre-clinical |
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models. PLD-118 would represent the first novel, orally available compound class |
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for the treatment of infections caused by the Candida yeast since the introduction |
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of the azoles in the 1970s.The project has a novel mode of action and has strong |
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potential to solve azole resistance problems.</p> |
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<p>In the Biodiversity program, activities are being focused on generating the |
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"toolbox" for the generation of novel enzymes and the application of the technology |
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to streptomyces, one of the most important microbial organisms for the production |
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of small molecules. Significant improvement of the general technology, which |
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is currently patented, has been achieved. The Biodiversity program is conducted |
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in both MIXIS France and PLIVA Zagreb laboratories, and it should give MIXIS |
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a vehicle for future products, a far longer patent protection and simplified |
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and attractive format. </p> |
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