Ann: Operational Update-PYC.AX, page-17

If the direction Genentech is heading with antibiotic research does involve the collaboration with Phylogica, what are the possibilities? There are two key elements in the antibody-antibiotic conjugate;

1. the first-in-class antibody drug platform.
2. the antibiotic.

Is it more likely that the Phylogica candidate would be the antibiotic? In the paper published in Nature which demonstrated that the novel antibody-antibiotic conjugate eliminated intracellular Staphylococcus aureus, Genentech used an antibiotic called rifalogue, a derivative of the common antibiotic rifampicin.

Could the Phylogica candidate be an integral part of the Genentech antibody drug platform itself? What is interesting is that CPP candidates have been derived from Staphylococcus aureus. For instance BEN_1312 is derived from the Fibronectin binding protein from S. aureus.

Could a phylomer derived from S. aureus emulate the intracellular S. aureus in getting inside the host cell. It would indeed be a nice touch to use the bacteria's own machinery to get inside the cell in order to release the antibiotic where the intracellular bacteria is hiding. We know from previous presentations that phylomer CPPs have potential to deliver challenging large molecule cargoes.

Going back to the announcements in relation to the Genentech collaboration we know that;
18 August 2014 - the collaboration explored novel approaches for drug discovery.
22 December 2014 - the collaboration was extended to discover novel antibiotics.

Arguably, the discovery of a novel approach for drug discovery led directly to the search for novel antibiotics. The question is whether the novel approach involved the development of an antibody drug platform which could be transformative in the war on superbugs.