Antibiotic Resistant “Superbugs”: A Novel Approach to a Major Health Crisis

Antibiotics are a modern marvel that we depend upon, and are rightfully considered wonder drugs of modern medicine.  But what happens when those same antibiotics are not able to do their job? And if they are ineffectual, what’s next? This is not a hypothetical question – it is a serious and growing problem.  However, it is also one for which there appears to be a viable solution.  We believe this is a topic of great importance to your audience and would like to offer you what we believe will be a compelling story.

Some background: today the over-prescription, and misuse of antibiotics have led to the genesis of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.” There is also a natural evolutionary factor to the increased prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Organism populations, which include bacteria, include several types with unusual traits, one of which is the ability to mutate. When a person takes an antibiotic, the drug kills the defenseless bacteria, but leaves behind the type of bacteria that is able to withstand an antibiotic’s attack. These “renegade” bacteria multiply, and over time their numbers become the predominant strain.

Add to the enormity of this day to day dilemma, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that each year nearly two million patients who are hospitalized for other conditions contract infections while hospitalized, and roughly 90,000 of them die as a result.  The reason: 70% of bacteria that cause hospital—acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the drugs commonly used to treat them.

Fortunately, cutting-edge research has led to a breakthrough that may end this vicious cycle of resistance. Using computational drug design technology developed at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers at drug development company PolyMedix, Inc. are developing a novel antibiotic that addresses this frightening resistance issue head-on.

A Novel Mechanism for Affecting Change….
The natural host defense proteins’ act directly on the cell membrane itself via a biophysical mechanism that makes it much more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance.  Through the creation of small molecules that mimic natural host defense proteins (defensins), PolyMedix is developing antibiotic drugs and antimicrobial materials that rapidly, simply, and directly destabilize and destroy the microbial cell membrane, and hence the organism itself.

Traditionally, antibiotics often must get inside the bacterial cell, and generally target biochemical targets such as enzymes. The bacterium resists the drug by changing the target, or simply pumping out the antibiotic.  In contrast, PolyMedix’s antibiotic breaks the bacterial cell membrane directly within minutes, much like a needle going into a balloon, making it less likely for the bacteria to develop resistance.  The effectiveness of this strategy as been confirmed to-date in the company’s preclinical studies.

We invite you to speak with Nick Landekic, the highly knowledgeable and articulate Chief Executive Officer at PolyMedix.  Mr. Landekic can discuss all aspects of this extremely important and timely situation, which touches each of our lives.  He can also talk about how natural host defense proteins have been in place since before homo sapiens appeared on earth, explain why microorganisms have not developed resistance to them, even after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, and why he anticipates that PolyMedix’s research will constitute a major breakthrough in the battle to combat antibiotic-resistance and ensure that our future antibiotics are safe and effective in all aspects of medical care.