Lilly Announces Development of Compound To Address Antibiotic Resistance.

INDIANAPOLIS--(HealthWire)--March 28, 1995--Eli Lilly and Company announced today at the Seventh European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Vienna that it has in development a compound that has promising potential to address the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in Gram-positive bacteria, including vancomycin resistance.

The compound, LY333328, is a semisynthetic glycopeptide active against nearly all Gram-positive bacteria tested in the laboratory. In this regard, it is even more active than already-marketed natural glycopeptide antibiotics, such as vancomycin and teicoplanin. In test-tube and animal-infection studies, the compound has shown excellent activity against vancomycin- and teicoplanin-resistant enterococci, which are virtually untreatable with currently available antibiotics. Consequently, resistant enterococci are among the most life-threatening causes of bacteremic infection in hospitalized patients. LY333328 is also very active in vitro against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and other species of staphylococci and streptococci, including penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae.

One potential advantage the compound may have over many currently marketed antibiotics is that it appears not only to stop bacterial reproduction but also to kill existing bacteria. Perhaps as a consequence, LY333328 shows little or no ability to select or induce antibiotic resistance in vitro among bacteria exposed to this compound.

LY333328 is one in a series of Lilly compounds under investigation to address the serious problem of bacterial drug resistance.

"While we are very excited about the potential of this compound, we need to conduct additional safety and efficacy studies in animals before beginning studies in humans," said Barry I. Eisenstein, M.D., a vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories. "However, our findings to date mark a first significant step toward offering a solution to antibiotic resistance seen in Gram-positive bacteria."

Pending the outcome of these studies, human clinical trials of the compound could begin by the fourth quarter of 1996.

Lilly has identified infectious diseases as one of the five therapeutic areas on which it will focus. A major thrust of the company's research in this area is targeted on combating antibiotic resistance. In addition to its investigation of new compounds, Lilly has previously announced its sponsorship of a major antibiotic- resistance tracking program, Network for Epidemiological Tracking (NET), in Southern and Eastern Europe. NET is cosponsored by the Center for Molecular Epidemiology in Portugal.

"We are approaching the problem of bacterial drug resistance in several ways," said Eisenstein. "We are pursuing the discovery and development of novel compounds that will prove to be effective weapons in this fight, while at the same time studying the patterns of resistance these bacteria follow. The latter studies will allow us to make early identification of changing patterns and mechanisms of resistance and focus our research efforts toward emerging bacterial diseases."

Eli Lilly and Company is a global research-based pharmaceutical corporation headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, that is working with its customers worldwide to help ensure that diseases are prevented, managed, and cured with maximum benefit and minimum cost to patients and society.

CONTACT: Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis

Amy Magan, 317/276-6337