2012-06-26
SLU and Medivir collaborate to develop drugs against bacterial infections
SLU and Medivir AB, a research-based pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases, announced today that they have initiated a collaboration with aimed at identifying and developing new drugs against bacteria that have become resistant to current antibiotics.
The researchers at SLU have extensive experience of isolating new microorganisms and their metabolites (intermediates and products of metabolism) with which microorganisms compete with each other in nature. These low molecular-weight chemical compounds with potentially novel mechanisms of action may serve as the starting point for developing new antibiotics to treat severe bacterial infections.
Medivir will further develop the substances that the SLU researchers identify in this early screening collaboration. Medivir will pay SLU a compensation for research services during the screening collaboration and a minor part of future revenues associated with any further development or commercialization of future substances.
– The increasing antibiotics resistance is a global major problem in human as well as in veterinary medicine and the need for new antibiotics is huge, says Assistant Vice-Chancellor Johan Schnürer, SLU. This collaboration with Medivir is based on previous collaborative projects and has its basis in SLU´s internationally renowned research on microbial interactions, metabolites and natural product chemistry.
– It is immensely satisfying that Medivir, an excellent Swedish pharmaceutical company, has chosen to collaborate with SLU, Johan Schnürer comments.
For more information: Professor Johan Schnürer, Assistant Vice-Chancellor at SLU; johan.schnurer@slu.se, tel 0708-15 19 78
Written by:
Mikael Jansson