LONDON (Alliance News) - Motif Bio PLC saw its shares rise early Monday after it said its Motif BioSciences Inc subsidiary has signed letters of intend and interim agreements with an unnamed global clinical research organisation, the first step towards getting Motif Bio's Iclaprim developmental antibiotic through key clinical trials.
The antiobiotic developer said that under the terms of the interim agreements, the clinical research organisation will start preparing for two Phase III randomised, double-blind, multi-centre clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intravenous iclaprim versus vancomycin in the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections suspected or confirmed to be due to Gram-positive pathogens.
Iclaprim is a broad-spectrum antibiotic designed to be effective against multi-drug resistant bacteria.
Under the terms of the interim agreements, Motif will invest over USD950,000. The two parties are now negotiating a formal agreement on the basis of the letters of intent for the conduct of the two studies.
Motif didn't name the research organisation, but said it is "one of the world's top five providers of Phase I-IV clinical trial management services and to date, has contributed to the development of all of the top 50 prescription medicines on the market. The CRO has unique insights into infectious disease clinical trials with over 17,000 patients in more than 150 studies."
Motif Bio shares were up 15.5% at 50.11 pence early Monday, one of the best-performing stocks in the AIM All-Share index.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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