Dear All, Two things today — the first on using MICs and the second on re-using MICs. Read on!
On using MICs (minimum inhibitory concentrations), we have additional details on the FDA BAA discussed in my 9 Oct 2023 newsletter, In particular, I’d like to draw your attention to a time-limited request regarding a request for proposals focused on urine-specific interpretive breakpoints that is of interest to this entire community. This RFP seeks data that could be utilized by standards development organizations and the FDA to interpret MICs when treating uncomplicated UTIs (uUTIs). The basis for this idea is given by FDA in their RFP (links given below):
- “Breakpoints are conventionally established based on serum concentrations of antibacterial drugs regardless of the anatomical site of infection.
- “However, for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTIs, also referred to as acute cystitis) which are characterized in women with normal anatomy by pyuria, a microbial pathogen on urine culture, local signs and symptoms and the absence of systemic symptoms, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) parameters based on concentrations of antibacterial drugs in urine may be informative for evaluation of their efficacy.
- “Consequently, urine-specific breakpoints for common bacterial causes of uUTI could be developed to guide safe and effective treatment of uUTI.
- “Moreover, the use of urine-specific breakpoints may facilitate the use of drugs to treat pathogens that are deemed resistant based on serum concentrations, which may facilitate antimicrobial stewardship.”
Well said! If you are interested in pursuing this RFP, 3-page Early Concept papers are due on November 6, 2023 and should be submitted to the FDA BAA under Charge Area IIIb1a. Concept Papers and Full Proposals are Due February 19, 2024. Depending on the scientific merit of the Full Proposals, the Agency anticipates awarding one research contract to address charge area IIIb1a with total funding not to exceed $250,000 (direct and indirect cost). Here are the links you need:
- General webpage for Office of Infectious Diseases Research Activities
- On which you will find this document: Request for Proposals: Funding Announcement to Facilitate Development of Urine-Specific Susceptibility Test Interpretive Criteria
- And for further details on the submission process, attend the 25 Oct 2023 FDA Announcement Day webinar
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On reusing MICs, I wrote on 24 Apr 2023 about the Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-use Challenge. As a reminder, Vivli is a clinical data sharing platform that was created in 2013 from a project by the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Vivli challenge sought innovative re-use of surveillance data shared by GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Shionogi, Paratek, and Venatorx via the Vivli AMR Register.
The news for today is that project has now culminated in the recognition of six outstanding awardees from a pool of 56 teams (from 28 different countries!) who participated in the Challenge. Go to https://amr.vivli.org/data-challenge/finalist-and-award-winning-solutions/ to explore the innovative projects from the awardees and finalists. The Grand Prize went to a team from Kenya for their Antimicro.ai web app, “an artificial intelligence web app that helps predict antibacterial/antifungal susceptibility and builds custom machine learning models” by using the Pfizer/Atlas Pfizer dataset of 858,233 records of 301 different bacterial species containing MIC values for 44 different antibiotics from 80 countries!
Fabulous to see such innovation at work! All best wishes, –jr
John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/. All opinions are my own.
Current funding opportunities (most current list is here)
- BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
- ARPA-H has an Open BAA that is accepting applications through 14 March 2024. It is quite wide-ranging in its scope and definitely includes AMR-related projects. See this newsletter for discussion of the BAA and an AMR project that it now supports.
- HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for all the details.
- The ENABLE-2 consortium has announced a call to support hit-to-lead compound development by researchers at publicly-funded European universities. The call is focused on molecules with the potential to be direct-acting therapies for one or more of the following priority pathogens: ESBL-producing/carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (E. coli, K. pneumoniae), P. aeruginosa, A. baumannii, methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or vancomycin-resistant E. faecium. The Call is open continuously, applications are reviewed at intervals, and funding is non-dilutive. Expressions of interest received before 30 Sep 2023 would be considered in November 2023. Applications received after this date will be evaluated in the spring of 2024 (date to be decided). Go to https://www.ilk.uu.se/enable2/apply/ for further details.
- The AMR Action Fund is now open to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
- INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
- These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
- In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community (most current list is here):
- General note: Virtual meetings are easy to attend, but regular attendance at in-person events is the key to networking and deeper insight. My personal favorites for such in-person meetings are marked below as HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and are the BEAM Alliance’s AMR Conference (March, Europe), ECCMID (April, Europe), the ASM-ESCMID Developer’s meeting (September, alternates sides of the Atlantic), and ID Week (October, USA). Of particular value for developers are the AMR Conference and the ASM-ESCMID conference. Hope to see you there!
- 20-23 Oct 2023 (Athens, Greece): 11th TIMM (Trends in Medical Mycology). Go here for details.
- 7-9 Nov 2023 (Atlanta, USA): 13th Annual Antibiotics Symposium hosted by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture. Go here for details.
- 13-14 Nov 2023 (virtual and Washington DC, USA): BARDA Industry Day 2023. Go here for more details.
- 14-15 Nov 2023 (Rockville, Maryland, USA and virtual): NIAID workshop entitled “Systematic Approaches for ESKAPE Bacteria Antigen Discovery”. Go here for details.
- 6-7 Feb 2024 (online): Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference. This is an annual, free of charge conference that is co-organized by GARDP and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). Details to follow — for now, just mark your calendar.
- 6-7 Mar 2024 (Basel,[NEW] 6-7 Mar 2024): Sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, the AMR Conference is now in its 8th year and is consistently an excellent meeting for developers. You can’t register yet but you can mark your calendar and signup for notifications about the meeting. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- 17-22 Mar 2024 (Ventura Beach, CA, in person): Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “New Antibacterial Discovery and Development” with a 16-17 Mar 2024 pre-conference Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. An intensive residential meeting, GRCs are highly recommended for networking and deep research insights. Apply here for the GRC and here for the GRS.
- 27-30 April 2024 (Barcelona, Spain): 34th ECCMID, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Go here for details. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- 26-31 May 2024 (Montreal, Canada): EDAR7, the McGill AMR Centre’s 7th edition of their Environmental Dimension of Antimicrobial Resistance conference. Go here for details; final abstract deadline is 21 Dec 2023.
- 13-17 June 2024 (Atlanta, Georgia): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. You can’t register yet, but you can go here for general details.
- 17-20 Sep 2024 (Porto, Portugal): ASM/ESCMID Joint Conference on Drug Development to Meet the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. Go here for the meeting’s general website. You can’t register (yet) for the 2024 event, but you can mark your calendar. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- 16-24 Oct 2023 (Los Angeles, USA): IDWeek 2024, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Limited details as yet on line, watch https://idweek.org/ for updates. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
