A team of investigators from Oregon State University, Corvallis (OSU) and Aradigm Corporation, an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of drugs for the prevention and treatment of severe respiratory diseases, recently reported the results on the efficacy of its Lipoquin® and Pulmaquin® drug candidates, which significantly reduced the growth of the pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacteria infection (PNTM) in mice after 3 weeks of once daily respiratory tract dosing. Results also showed, in comparison to saline controls, a reduction of 79% by Lipoquin and of 77% by Pulmaquin regarding the number of colony forming units of Mycobacterium Avium Subsp Hominissuis. There was no effect on unencapsulated ciprofloxacin.
“I am very pleased that the encouraging effects of Lipoquin and Pulmaquin against PNTM in the biofilm and macrophage in vitro assays have been now confirmed with this short treatment in our animal model. This test system was previously evaluated and demonstrated to provide results comparable to the results obtained in humans. We expect that even more profound effects will be seen with the prolonged treatment over several months typically used in humans,” said Dr. Luiz Bermudez, professor of Biomedical Sciences at OSU in a recent press release.
Ciprofloxacin is a widely used antibiotic for the treatment of acute lung infections and has antibacterial activity against bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Pulmaquin is by a mixture of liposome encapsulated and unencapsulated ciprofloxacin.
Aradigm has been granted orphan drug designations for liposomal ciprofloxacin as well as for ciprofloxacin for inhalation for non-CF Bronchiectasis in the United States. The FDA also designated the drug as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP). The QIDP designation is granted for treatment of non-CF Bronchiectasis patients with chronic lung infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The results will be presented at the American Thoracic Society 2015 International Conference in Denver, CO, in a session D108 titled “Diagnosis and Management of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Infections,” which will occur at 1:30 pm-3:30 pm on the 20th of May (The Abstract ID/Title: #A6293, poster #609 is Treatment of Mycobacterium Avium Subsp Hominissuis (MAH) Lung Infections with Liposome-Encapsulated Ciprofloxacin Resulted in Significant Decrease in Bacterial Load in the Lung).
This research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy And Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under the Award Number R43AI106188