Roche will be paying up to $750 million for rights to a new molecule, 0P0595, that helps boost the efficiency of antibiotics to fight increasingly resistant bacteria.

Approximately 65 percent of global antibiotic sales are of the beta-lactam class of antibiotics which includes penicillins, cephalosporins, monobactams and carbapenems. However, the efficacy of these life-saving antibiotics is threatened by rising bacterial resistance caused by beta-lactamase enzymes which render the antibiotics increasingly ineffective. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than two million patients are affected by drug-resistant infections each year in the United States, with direct healthcare costs as high as $20 billion.
Janet Hammond from Roche's research unit said, "There is an urgent need for new antibiotics able to combat the increasing resistance to antibiotics that is being seen worldwide."
Christopher G. Micetich, founder and CEO of Fedora Pharmaceuticals said, “The properties of OP0595 and its ability to be combined with new or existing beta-lactam antibiotics promise a significant advance in the battle against increasing multi-drug-resistant bacteria.”
Source-Medindia