title: The discovery of a novel antibiotic for the treatment ofClostridium difficileinfections: a story of an effective academic-industrial partnership.
abstract: Academic drug discovery is playing an increasingly important role in the identification of new therapies for a wide range of diseases. There is no one model that guarantees success. We describe here a drug discovery story where chance, the ability to capitalise on chance, and the assembling of a range of expertise, have all played important roles in the discovery and subsequent development of an antibiotic chemotype based on the bis-benzimidazole scaffold, with potency against a number of current therapeutically challenging diseases. One compound in this class, SMT19969, has recently entered Phase 2 human clinical trials for the treatment ofClostridium difficileinfections.
authors.affiliation: UCL School of Pharmacy , University College London , London WC1N 1AX , UK . Email: s.neidle@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.affiliation: UCL School of Pharmacy , University College London , London WC1N 1AX , UK . Email: s.neidle@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Summit Therapeutics , Abingdon , OX14 4RY , UK.
authors.forename: Colin R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Dorgan
authors.affiliation: Summit Therapeutics , Abingdon , OX14 4RY , UK.
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Summit Therapeutics , Abingdon , OX14 4RY , UK.
authors.forename: Francis X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Summit Therapeutics , Abingdon , OX14 4RY , UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vickers
authors.affiliation: UCL School of Pharmacy , University College London , London WC1N 1AX , UK . Email: s.neidle@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Aaron G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Dale
authors.affiliation: UCL School of Pharmacy , University College London , London WC1N 1AX , UK . Email: s.neidle@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Neidle