India's TCG Lifesciences has signed up to handle early phase work for Debiopharm's drug-resistant bacteria program, helping the Swiss drug developer as it chases a share of the antibiotics market.
Under the deal, TCG will handle discovery and lead optimization while Debiopharm presides over drug development and funds the program. Debiopharm hopes to come up with a winning compound to fight drug-resistant bacteria for hospital-acquired infections, part of a planned expansion of its work in antibiotic drug development, the company said.
"We are very enthusiastic about this partnership with TCGLS for the development of novel antibiotics, their extensive experience in medicinal chemistry and infectious diseases is a major asset for the development of Debio 1348," President Rolland-Yves Mauvernay said in a statement. "This partnership is key to us to establish a leadership position in the area of antibiotics."
Debiopharm functions as sort of a middleman in the biotech world, in-licensing candidate therapies, developing them through Phase III and then out-licensing treatments for sales and marketing.
In May, the company struck up a similar deal with German's Cenix BioScience, tasking the CRO with validating biomarkers for Debiopharm's cancer pipeline.
- read the statement