LifeArc, a national medical research charity, is joining the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Syndicate in a strategic partnership alongside Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC).
The CF AMR Syndicate aims to address unmet patient needs by linking people with CF with leading experts across industry, academia and the NHS.
Together, this cross-sector consortium is identifying and tackling drug discovery hurdles to accelerate the development of CF antimicrobials and infection diagnostics and the speed at which they can reach the people who need them.
For the estimated 10,800 people in the UK living with CF, the lungs are one of the most commonly affected organs. The development of frequent and persistent infections that are difficult to treat leads to a progressive decline in lung function. Treatment failure due to the development of resistance is frequently seen in people with CF.
With microbes becoming increasingly resistant to the current medicines and no new antibiotics being brought to market in over 25 years, AMR is a critically important and worldwide health concern. It remains one of the biggest issues faced by the CF community and is an area that faces significant drug discovery and drug development challenges.
This critical unmet patient need is something that Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) and LifeArc – combined with insight from Cystic Fibrosis Trust – will seek to address. It is hoped that this collaborative approach will prove pivotal in unlocking future treatments and breakthroughs.
Dr Beverley Isherwood, Partnership Lead for Infectious Disease at MDC, commented: “It is brilliant that LifeArc is joining forces with MDC and Cystic Fibrosis Trust to help deliver on the CF AMR Syndicate’s objectives, strengthening our combined reach and impact.
“By nurturing research, academic translation and industrial commercialisation in this area, we are collaboratively fuelling the acceleration of much-needed new treatments and diagnostics to tackle AMR in CF.”
