Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Acquires Artilysin Proteins For Multi-Resistant Bacteria From Lysando

By Cyndi Root

The Boehringer Ingelheim Group announced in a press release that its animal health division, Vetmedica, has acquired a new technology from Lysando to address the severe, global threat of antibacterial resistance in humans and animals. The protein technology called Artilysin is a new approach to the fight against pathogens and bacteria. Boehringer’s license of the technology through the animal health unit allows the company to examine the scope of the new class of substances for pharmaceuticals, food, and hygiene. The effort to discover new drugs is sorely needed as everyone from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the President of the United States, has called for increased and sustained effort to find new drugs.   

Lysando from Liechtenstein, does not manufacture the Artilysin proteins and does not intend to produce them in the future. It focuses on building designer proteins with a view to licensing them. Markus Matuschka v. Greiffenclau, CEO of Lysando, said, "The acquisition of licensing rights for the Artilysin technology by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica is a decisive step in the acceptance of this new class of substances.”

Artilysin

Artilysin is a technology platform that allows researchers to develop drugs against   pathogenic gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Lysando states that it is an effective alternative to antibiotics. The Artilysin proteins are highly selective, eliminating multi-resistant and persistent bacteria in a “friend or foe” identification process.

Antibacterial Resistance

Antibacterial resistance is a significant threat that is steadily increasing as antibiotics are over-prescribed and new drugs are scarce. In a commentary in the journal Nature, Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University's Centre for Immunity, Infection, and Evolution, and Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust medical charity, made the case for organizing an international committee to address the problem. Their suggestion is to call the governing body the “Intergovernmental Panel on Antimicrobial Resistance (IPAMR),” which would be composed of experts from various fields. 

Incentivizing the Pharmaceutical Industry

Woolhouse and Farrar state that only a few antibiotics have been developed recently so the pharmaceutical industry needs new incentives and more support from regulatory entities to develop new drugs. However, incentivizing pharmaceutical companies with strategies, such as patent extensions, may not be the right answer, says authors Aaron S. Kesselheim and Kevin Outterson in Health Affairs. They state, “Such strategies directly conflict with the clear need to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and could actually increase prescription use. As an alternative, we recommend a two-prong, “integrated” strategy. This would increase reimbursement for the appropriate, evidence-based use of antibiotics that also met specific public health goals — such as reducing illness levels while limiting antibiotic resistance.”