Molecular diagnostics company Cepheid ($CPHD) is partnering with pharma big shots AstraZeneca ($AZN), GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and Cubist Pharmaceuticals ($CBST) to develop a rapid diagnostic test that can target multidrug-resistant pathogens to help doctors appropriately prescribe antibiotics.
Antibiotic-resistant superbugs are on the rise in part because of increasing abuse and misuse of antibiotics, such as when patients stop their prescription too soon and fail to take their entire antibiotic regimen. In some cases, antibiotics are unnecessary or ineffective treatments, so targeting bacterial infections with the right treatment could help slow the explosion in resistance.
Sunnyvale, CA-based Cepheid is developing its Xpert Carba-R, a rapid test for use with rectal swab samples, to identify the presence of potentially life-threatening bacteria. Cepheid and its Big Pharma partners are working to extend the number of body sample types from rectal swabs to other body samples, such as respiratory samples from patients with pneumonia.
Xpert Carba-R is expected to hit U.S. markets in 2015. It is already available outside the U.S.
"Developing rapid molecular diagnostics will enable physicians to treat patients suffering from bacterial infections with a new generation of safe and well tolerated antibiotics that will target drug-resistant pathogens in an effective way that is not possible with today's drugs," said Manos Perros, vice president and head of AstraZeneca Infection Innovative Medicines, in a statement.
More than two million people in the U.S. each year acquires a serious bacterial infection that is resistant to one or more of the antimicrobial agents intended to treat it.
Some emerging resistant bacteria are invulnerable to many, and in some cases all, of the antimicrobial agents currently available for therapy.
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