In a poster communication that will be presented on September 19, 2015 at the International Congress of Chemotherapy and Infection (ICAAC/ICC 2015) in San Diego, CA, entitled “Treatment of Lung Infection Caused by Mycobacterium abscessus in Beige Mice with Pulmonary Delivery of Liposomally Encapsulated Ciprofloxacin is Associated with Significant Reduction of Bacterial Load,” researchers from Oregon State University in collaboration with Aradigm Corporation found that new therapies Lipoquin® and Pulmaquin®, both developed by Aradigm, yielded significant reduction of infection in mice model suffering from pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is a fungus known to cause serious diseases in mammals including various pulmonary infections, but this bacterium does not cause tuberculosis. NTM is widely present in environment like rivers/estuaries, wet soil, marshland, and streams. Human infection with NTM is believed to result from environmental exposures, and unlike tuberculosis, no evidence was observed for transmission from animal-to-human or vice versa. Illnesses related to NTM are mostly recorded in industrialized countries and the number of cases of pulmonary NTM is estimated to be much higher than cases of tuberculosis. NTM disease mostly involves bacteria by the name of Mycobacterium abscessus that is particularly difficult to treat.

In the scheduled poster communication at the San Diego conference, the researchers will present clinical trials of mice model colonized by pulmonary Mycobacterium abscessus and treated once daily with the novel drugs Lipoquin® and Pulmaquin®. Their clinical trials showed that mice treated for a period of 3 weeks resulted in reduced infection by respectively 95.2% and 96.1% for Lipoquin and Pulmaquin. Furthermore, after a period of 6 weeks of treatment, additional decline in the infection was noticed and the recorded data are 99.7% and 99.4% for Lipoquin and Pulmaquin, respectively. By comparison, unencapsulated ciprofloxacin, which is a commercialized antibiotic utilized to treat various bacterial infections was find to have no effect on Mycobacterium abscessus.

In conclusion, Lipoquin® and Pulmaquin® are very promising new drugs for treatment of mice infected with pulmonary Mycobacterium abscessus. These findings are important because lung infections with this bacterium are particularly difficult treat and hence require urgent new therapies. The researchers are planning for future clinical trials with longer periods of treatment as usually performed in human clinical trials.

Aradigm is an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of drugs for the prevention and treatment of severe respiratory diseases. Aradigm is currently in Phase 3 development of Pulmaquin (an investigational proprietary formulation of ciprofloxacin for inhalation) for the treatment of non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. Aradigm’s inhaled ciprofloxacin formulations are also product candidates for treatment of patients with cystic fibrosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria, and for the prevention and treatment of high threat and bioterrorism infections, such as inhaled tularemia, pneumonic plague, Q fever and inhaled anthrax. More information about Aradigm can be found at www.aradigm.com.