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 Roche had agreed in 2013 to pay privately held partner Polyphor up
to 500 million Swiss francs ($485.3 million) for rights to the
product, marking a rare foray by a major pharmaceuticals company
into the battle against superbug infections in hospitals.
The deal included milestone payments of up to 465 million francs.
"Roche has decided to discontinue its involvement in the clinical
development of the investigational antibiotic RG7929/POL7080 for the
treatment of patients with severe Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections
and will return the asset to Polyphor," a company spokesman said by
email when asked about a report to this effect by the NZZ am Sonntag
newspaper.
The spokesman cited Roche's assessment that "a streamlined
development path as originally planned is no longer an option for
Roche".
Superbug infections, including multi-drug-resistant typhoid,
tuberculosis and gonorrhea, kill hundreds of thousands of people a
year and the rise of antibiotic resistance has been described by the
World Health Organization as "one of the biggest health challenges
of the 21st century".
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The Roche spokesman said that antimicrobial resistance remained a
major threat to public health and Roche would continues to focus on
this unmet medical need as part of its infectious disease research
and development strategy.
NZZ said that the experimental product, which is in phase II
clinical trials, will now be developed alone by Polyphor.
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by David Goodman)
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