PathoGenesis Corp. Receives NIH Grant for Research On Bacterial Virulence Factors
08:25 a.m. Jul 07, 1998 Eastern

SEATTLE, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- PathoGenesis Corp. (Nasdaq: PGNS) today announced that it has received a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

The grant will support research on developing inhibitors of factors that increase the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen that affects cystic fibrosis, burn, cancer and other seriously ill patients. Virulence factors include toxins and tissue-destroying enzymes. The sequence of events that produces virulence factors also is linked to production of a "biofilm," or a sticky matrix of polysaccharide fibers and alginate. This biofilm connects the pseudomonal bacteria to each other and to surfaces, such as the airways of people with cystic fibrosis. Biofilms are an effective barrier defense against antibiotics and immune responses. In its biofilm form, P. aeruginosa is 50 to 5,000 times more resistant to antibacterial agents than are other types of P. aeruginosa. In addition, biofilms may provoke immune responses that fail to penetrate the matrix but instead cause host tissue damage.

PathoGenesis is studying virulence factors -- and is sequencing and annotating the P. aeruginosa genome (DNA) -- to aid in the development of more effective antibiotics to treat pseudomonal lung infections.

"Our ultimate goal is to identify drug candidates that can inhibit these destructive virulence factors," said A. Bruce Montgomery, M.D., executive vice president of research and development. "For example, a drug might prevent pseudomonal bacteria from forming a protective biofilm, making it more vulnerable to antibiotic therapy. We also might find ways to decrease or prevent the progressive lung damage that pseudomonal bacteria cause in people with cystic fibrosis."

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for research on P. aeruginosa is the second that PathoGenesis has received in recent months. In March, PathoGenesis announced an SBIR grant for research on anti-tuberculosis agents. PathoGenesis has one of the industry's leading research programs for tuberculosis, Montgomery said, with two drug candidates in Phase II clinical trials and additional compounds in preclinical research.

Seattle-based PathoGenesis Corp. develops drugs for treating serious infectious diseases where there is a significant need for improved therapy. The company markets an inhaled antibiotic in the U.S. and is developing drug candidates to treat serious chronic lung infections, including those common in cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis and tuberculosis patients. PathoGenesis' stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol PGNS. The company's Web site is located at www.pathogenesis.com.

Note: This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors that may cause the company's actual results to be materially different from historical results or any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, uncertainties related to the fact that PathoGenesis began commercial operations only recently, its dependence on TOBI(R) (tobramycin solution for inhalation), third party reimbursement and product pricing, government regulation, drug development and clinical trials, competition and alternative therapies, and other factors described in PathoGenesis' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. SOURCE PathoGenesis Corp.

Copyright 1998, PR Newswire

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