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Plant-derived antibacterial PYN6 active against MRSA
Phynova Group plc
("Phynova")
Plant-derived antibacterial PYN6 active against MRSA
Phynova Group plc (AIM: PYN), the developer of prescription pharmaceuticals derived from Chinese botanical medicines, today announces that its Business Development Director, Dr Tony Mills, will provide an update on its plant-derived antibacterial PYN6 at the natural products conference "Natural Products in Drug Discovery and Development" at the Holiday Inn, Munich City Centre on Tuesday, 4 December. Results from pre-clinical work conducted by Phynova in collaboration with the University of East London have demonstrated a high degree of bacterial inhibition against 30 common strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from London´s teaching hospitals. Inhibition was demonstrated against all of the strains of MRSA that were tested, using levels of PYN6 that were some tenfold less than that typically needed to achieve inhibition with mupirocin, the topical antibiotic currently routinely used for treatment of skin infections involving MRSA. Furthermore resistance to PYN6 has not been observed even after prolonged culture of numerous MRSA strains with PYN6. PYN6 has also shown significant activity against the Propionibacterium acnes organism which causes acne.
Phynova is conducting formulation studies to develop a topical gel, cream or ointment containing PYN6 as active ingredient and is in active discussions with several companies in the dermatological sector regarding the future development and commercialisation of PYN6.
Robert Miller, Phynova´s CEO, said: "Gaining access to potentially valuable new drug opportunities such as PYN6 was an important part of the rationale for our cooperation with our Chinese partner Botanic Century. We are delighted that the extensive preclinical work that we have carried out this year has confirmed its promise as a potential treatment for MRSA, the devastating bacterial infection that has become such a problem in the UK. An additional key part of our commercial strategy is to offer a proportion of our drug candidates as in licensing opportunities to the pharma industry so we are also very pleased with the interest that we are attracting from potential partners."
- Ends -
For further information, please contact:
Phynova Group PLC +44 (0) 1993 880700
Robert Miller, Chief Executive Officer www.phynova.com
Nominated Adviser:
Nabarro Wells & Co. Limited +44 (0) 20 7710 7400
Marc Cramsie/Harry Stockdale
Broker:
Evolution Securities China Limited +44 (0) 20 7220 4850
Barry Saint
Media enquiries:
Abchurch Communications +44 (0) 20 7398 7700
Peter Laing/Ashley Tapp
ashley.tapp@abchurch-group.com
www.abchurch-group.com
Notes to Editors:
About Phynova
Phynova is a UK company developing prescription pharmaceuticals derived from Chinese botanical medicines. Phynova is focused on viral and metabolic diseases and cancer. Phynova´s lead product for hepatitis C has now completed a Phase I/II trial in the US and the Phase IIb trial is scheduled to commence in the first half of 2008. Two further products, for fatty liver disease and post-operative ileus, are targeted for entry to the clinic over the next six months and there are a further four products in preclinical development.
About MRSA and Phynova´s clinical candidate antibacterial PYN6
Every year an estimated 100,000 UK patients contract an antibiotic-resistant infection while in hospital. Cases of MRSA in England and Wales have increased by 600% in the last decade. The reported cost to the NHS of treating these infections is already believed to exceed £1 billion a year. With the steep increase in the appearance of so-called "super-bugs" such as MRSA in UK hospitals, there is a widely-recognised need for new anti-bacterial treatments.
The majority of strains of MSRA are resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, including some of those most recently introduced. Some strains are also resistant to antibiotics such as mupirocin, a topical antibiotic currently used to combat asymptomatic carriage and colonisation in hospitals. In some hospital intensive care units, it is estimated that as many as 10 20% of patients may be colonised by MRSA. Mupirocin is currently the most widely-used conventional topical antibiotic for MRSA infections but there is increasing evidence of resistance emerging to this agent, especially in the hospital setting.
PYN6 is a plant extract antibacterial that was licensed from Phynova´s Chinese affiliate Botanic Century in November 2006. Botanic Century had tested PYN6 in in vitro assays against a wide spectrum of bacterial species (including MRSA) that have become resistant to commonly-used antibiotics. PYN6 was found to be a potent antibiotic against all species tested. These results have since been confirmed and extended by Phynova. Furthermore it has proved exceptionally difficult to induce resistance to PYN6 by repeated culture at sub-lethal dose levels – a process that rapidly leads to the emergence of resistant strains with most antibiotics currently used against MRSA, such as the quinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin.
PYN6 is an active fraction isolated from a single plant species used in traditional Chinese medicine. Both the composition of the fraction and the extraction process are proprietary to Phynova. Phynova plans to find partners for the future development and commercialisation of PYN6 in both the MRSA and acne indications.
For further information please visit www.phynova.com;
03/12/2007
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