A new era of infection control

Executive Summary

The time has come for the biopharma industry to develop a better way to control infections than the century-old approach of antibiotic chemicals. Antibiotics changed medicine with their almost miraculous ability to treat infection. But today, we know that they:

iOften cause severe microbiome damage

iiOften fail to control many troublesome infections

iiiTypically generate resistance along the way, limiting their effectiveness

The solution is not to develop another antibiotic: the world already has over 100 good ones. We need a new approach that can treat infection in the settings where the antibiotic approach often fails. The body’s natural immune system already identifies invaders, attacking pathogens while sparing the beneficial bacteria in the microbiome. We propose a therapeutic strategy that disables bacterial defenses to the immune system, thus working in unison with the body’s natural responses. We call such molecules “bacterial defense disablers”.

We envision our “bacterial defense disablers” idea as a bold new approach to managing infection control, and an idea with the potential to disrupt a century of thinking about the problem. The concept takes advantage of millions of years of evolution to allow the immune system to target pathogens, as it does so well, and when it attacks those pathogens, a bacterial “defense disabler” blocks the ability of bacteria to repair damage from the attack. This is hugely advantageous compared to killing bacteria wholesale with antibiotic chemicals, not least because it:

i
Preserves the healthy microbiome (which has not been targeted by the immune system)
ii
Enables eradication of “hidden” pathogens, and
iii
Avoids the usual paths to antibiotic resistance

A sweeping innovation like this could revolutionize infection control across many fields, and by virtue of its broad application represent a multi-billion-dollar business.

In the material that follows, we provide more detail on

•
The clinical problems with existing antibiotics and how related, narrow spectrum strategies are merely false hope
•
The expensive economic consequences of antibiotic treatment failure
•
Detrimental health consequences of damage to the healthy microbiome
•
The transformative potential of the new bacterial defense disabler approach as demonstrated in vitro and in vivo using a molecule in development by our company, Unison Medicines
•
Application of bacterial defense disablers to recalcitrant urinary tract infections, as an example of active infection control
•
Application of bacterial defense disablers to immuno-oncology, as an example of passive infection control

We envision a world of better infection control, without antibiotics.