San Diego, California, September 29, 2022 –
Forge Therapeutics, Inc. (Forge), a biotechnology company developing novel anti-infectives targeting bacterial and viral metalloenzymes, announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to advance FG-LpxC UTI, a novel non-hydroxamate inhibitor of LpxC, for the treatment of urinary tract infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.
Under this new contract, Contract No. 75N93022C00060, Forge will receive $4.7 million for initial Base Period activities, with up to $12.5 million in additional funding if all project milestones are met. In total, Forge has the potential to receive federal funding of up to $17.2 million that would be used to conduct IND-enabling and Phase 1 studies of its lead LpxC inhibitor using both intravenous (IV) and oral administration.
“We are grateful to NIAID for supporting the discovery and development of novel medicines to treat life threatening infectious diseases including those associated with antimicrobial resistance,” said Andrew Tomaras, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Forge. “This award not only provides further external validation of our chemistry platform but allows the rapid advancement of a truly novel class antibiotic for treating infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.”
In preclinical studies, the lead compound of FG-LpxC UTI (FG-2101) has shown in vivo efficacy against multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria including those that produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) as well as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) in multiple infection models using both IV and oral formulations.
About LpxC
LpxC is a validated target in Gram-negative bacteria, yet there are no approved therapeutics that target it. No company has succeeded in developing safe and efficacious LpxC-targeting compounds in humans, despite multiple efforts. Forge, using its proprietary metal-binding pharmacophore chemistry platform, has developed novel, non-hydroxamate-based LpxC inhibitors that are safe and effective in multiple animal models of infection, demonstrating their ability to kill Gram-negative superbugs where other antibiotics fail. Forge’s medicinal chemistry team has leveraged previous LpxC research experiences to design compounds that have differentiated safety profiles relative to legacy clinical candidates.
About Forge Therapeutics and the MAGNET platform
Forge Therapeutics, Inc. has built a proprietary platform called MAGNET (Metalloprotein-targeting Approach to Generating New Experimental Therapeutics) to discover novel small molecule inhibitors of specific bacterial and viral metalloenzymes. By focusing on novel inhibitors with unique mechanisms of action, Forge aims to develop entirely novel classes of anti-infectives able to effectively treat patients infected with antimicrobial resistant pathogens. Forge has a strategic antibiotic discovery relationship with Evotec AG, antibiotic research collaborations with Basilea Pharmaceutica International Ltd. and Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., and has been awarded funding by CARB-X. For further information, please visit the company’s website www.ForgeTherapeutics.com and follow us on Twitter @ForgeThera.
Forge Company Contact:
Info@ForgeTherapeutics.com
Forge Media Contact:
Amy Conrad
Juniper Point
amy@juniper-point.com
858-366-3243