Allergan: New Study Data Highlights In Vitro Antimicrobial Activity Of AVYCAZ

(RTTNews) - Allergan plc (AGN), a pharmaceutical company developing new treatment options for infectious diseases, announced Monday that new study data highlights the in vitro activity of AVYCAZ (ceftazidime and avibactam) against several species of Gram-negative pathogens. This includes certain strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase or KPC-producing Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Results were presented at the 2016 ASM Microbe meeting in Boston in two separate studies. One featured data from the International Network for Optimal Resistance Monitoring (INFORM) program.

KPC-producing bacteria are a type of carbapenen-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC has identified as one of the three most urgent public health threats specific to antibiotic resistance.

KPC accounts for approximately 85 percent of all CRE infections in the U.S. resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa is also considered a serious threat by the CDC.

According to the company, one of the studies found AVYCAZ inhibited the majority of isolates evaluated in vitro from 11 Enterobacteriaceae species, including E. coli and KPC-producing Gram-negative bacteria.

A second and separate study found AVYCAZ exhibited in vitro activity against the majority of evaluated Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, and retained activity against resistant isolates.

AVYCAZ is an antibiotic developed to treat certain serious Gram-negative bacterial infections. It consists of ceftazidime, a third-generation cephalosporin that is an established and respected treatment for serious Gram-negative bacterial infections, and avibactam, a non-ß lactam ß-lactamase inhibitor.

Ceftazidime and avibactam is being jointly developed with AstraZeneca. Allergan holds the rights to commercialize ceftazidime and avibactam in North America, while AstraZeneca holds the rights to commercialize the combination in the rest of the world.

In pre-market activity on the NYSE, Allergan shares were gaining 1.26 percent.