Dr Vasan Sambandamurthy is Senior Vice President , Strategy & Global Operations at Bugworks Research Inc , a clinical stage biopharma company that is developing a novel class of broadspectrum antibacterial agents and immunotherapies to treat patients with critical care needs in infection and cancer . Dr Vasan brings over 20 years of professional experience in vaccine discovery and drug development at major global corporations like Novartis , AstraZeneca , and Biocon . Most recently , he was the CEO at the DBT / Wellcome Trust India Alliance . He is a recipient of several awards including the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute ( HHMI ) fellowship to pursue his post-doctoral research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine , New York . He has over 50 publications in peerreviewed international journals including Nature Medicine , Nature Immunology , Nature Communications and co-inventor on 4 patents .
Key R & D initiatives being spearheaded by Bugworks currently and the timeline for expected outcomes ?
Our lead antibacterial asset , BWC0977 , is undergoing first-in-human phase I clinical trials in Australia with anticipated completion by early 2024 . We plan to embark on pivotal global trials in patients with complicated intraabdominal infections in 2025 with the study outcome enabling product registration across global markets .
Our lead IO assets are in an advanced
preclinical stage of development with potential first-in-human trials in the next 12-15 months . Outcome from these trials will guide further clinical development across a variety of cancers .
Your anti-bacterial ( GYROX ) and immuno-oncology ( DARE ) products under development by the company to tackle AMR and cancer respectively ?
Under GYROX antibacterial agents category , we are developing a novel class of dual-acting topoisomerase inhibitors as broad-spectrum agents to treat a variety of bacterial infections caused by both Gram-positive and Gramnegative pathogens .
Under DARE immune-oncology assets category , we are developing novel class of adenosine receptor antagonists as immunotherapies for the treatment of solid tumors ( head-neck , colorectal , gastric , non-small cell lung , renalcell carcinoma and hard-to-treat breast cancers ).
Stage of development of these products and by when are they expected to get commercialized ?
The pivotal registration enabling trials for BWC0977 is likely to be completed by 2027 . The entire data package from these studies will enable the filing for marketing authorisation across major global markets in 2028 / 2029 .
Our lead IO asset is likely to enter first-inhuman trials within the next 12-15 months . The outcome from this Phase 1b trial will further guide the clinical development across a variety of cancers either as monotherapy or in combination with frontline therapies . Given the highly competitive nature of IO space , we
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BioVoiceNews | February 2023