Unmet need

The unmet clinical need in anti-infectives

Antimicrobial resistance is a long-term challenge to global public health. The burden of bacterial and fungal infection keeps rising while treatment options grow slowly. This is why EluciTx chose the anti-infective field.

Bacterial infection

Resistant bacteria: a silent pandemic

  • 1.14 million [1] Deaths directly attributable to bacterial AMR worldwide in 2021
  • 4.71 million [1] Deaths associated with bacterial AMR worldwide in 2021
  • 39 million [1] Forecast cumulative deaths directly attributable to bacterial AMR, 2025–2050

Pathogens evolve; drugs have not kept pace

The World Health Organization's 2024 Bacterial Priority Pathogens List[2] places carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant and third-generation-cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales, and rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the critical priority group. Hospital-acquired infections caused by these organisms leave very few options, often only last-resort drugs with substantial toxicity.

Few new drugs reach the clinic

WHO's annual analyses of antibacterial agents in development[3] repeatedly point to a limited number of candidates in clinical development, and fewer still with new mechanisms of action against critical priority pathogens. Limited commercial returns make many antibacterial programmes hard to sustain.

Infections that resist clearance

In device-related infections involving catheters and implants, and in chronic wound infections, pathogens often persist as biofilms that tolerate conventional antimicrobials, leading to treatment failure and relapse.

High-risk patients cannot afford a failure

For patients in intensive care, haematology-oncology and transplantation, one difficult-to-treat infection can interrupt treatment of the underlying disease and directly affect outcomes.

Fungal infection

Invasive fungal infection: a long-underestimated threat

  • ~6.5 million [4] Estimated invasive fungal infections worldwide each year
  • ~3.8 million [4] Estimated deaths associated with fungal disease each year
  • 4 classes Systemic antifungal drug classes clinicians have mainly relied on for decades Polyenes, azoles, echinocandins, flucytosine

The at-risk population is growing

Ageing populations, the wide use of cancer therapy and immunosuppression, and advances in critical care continue to enlarge the susceptible population. In 2022 WHO published its first Fungal Priority Pathogens List[5], placing Candida auris, Aspergillus fumigatus, Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans in the critical group.

Resistance is rising

Azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus, echinocandin-resistant Candida and multidrug-resistant Candida auris capable of persistent transmission in hospitals have been reported across many countries. In China, non-albicans species account for a larger share of candidaemia than in Europe and North America, and some are less susceptible to current drugs.

Each existing class has limits

Polyenes carry significant nephrotoxicity; azoles have many drug interactions and rising resistance; echinocandins are intravenous only, with limited penetration into the central nervous system, eye and urinary tract. Mortality from invasive candidiasis and invasive aspergillosis remains high in high-risk patients.

Delayed diagnosis, missed windows

Fungal cultures have low sensitivity and slow turnaround, so clinicians often have to treat empirically without microbiological evidence. Recognising infection earlier and offering safer, more effective options are the most practical needs in this field.

Our response

Starting from real clinical problems

EluciTx takes these unmet needs as the starting point of its research: artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of new anti-infective candidates, and evidence-based optimisation of combination regimens to bring clinical value to the bedside sooner.

Our approach

References

  1. GBD 2021 Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators. Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050. Lancet. 2024;404(10459):1199–1226. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01867-1
  2. World Health Organization. WHO bacterial priority pathogens list, 2024. Geneva: WHO; 2024.
  3. World Health Organization. 2023 Antibacterial agents in clinical and preclinical development: an overview and analysis. Geneva: WHO; 2024.
  4. Denning DW. Global incidence and mortality of severe fungal disease. Lancet Infect Dis. 2024;24(7):e428–e438. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(23)00692-8
  5. World Health Organization. WHO fungal priority pathogens list to guide research, development and public health action. Geneva: WHO; 2022.