The increase in multi-drug resistant bacteria paired with the current environment of Antibacterial Drug Development (ABDD), including the economic and regulatory disincentives to the development of new antibacterial drugs and difficult and complex trials, have created an urgent need to develop more treatment options for patients with unmet need (e.g., those who have multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, and those who have limited or no options for treatment).

Read more about issues in ABDD.

ABDD Program: Unmet Need in Antibiotic Development (2011-ongoing)

View other projects within CTTI’s ABDD Program.

• Identify challenges and explore solutions to address serious bacterial disease for which effective antibacterial drugs are limited for patients who have an emerging bacterial pathogen with multi-drug resistance
• Facilitate discussion among stakeholders to explore non-traditional streamlined development pathways to restructure development of antibacterial drugs addressing unmet medical need
• To explore statistical solutions to antibacterial drug development
• To characterize patient and provider opinions regarding the tradeoffs between precision and uncertainty in the context of non-traditional pathways to antibiotic development

The ABDD program will facilitate the development of new antibacterial drugs.

• There will be a better understanding of potential alternative statistical approaches to ABDD.
• There will be objective qualitative data about patients’ and providers’ perspectives on tradeoffs between precision and uncertainty in the context of streamlined pathways to antibiotic development.

• Conduct a series of think tanks to explore statistical solutions to ABDD
• Conduct focus groups to solicit patients’ views concerning the balance of perceived risk and perceived benefit
• Conduct structured interviews and focus groups of providers, including internal medicine (community and academic), critical care, pulmonary, Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee members, and others to solicit their views on the use of antibacterial drugs approved with limited data sets
• Discuss suggestions and views during the think tanks and focus groups

You can find additional information about each of the think tanks and expert meetings by clicking on the links below:

• March 1, 2016 Expert Meeting, The Use of Antibacterial Drugs Developed via Streamlined Approaches for Serious Infections Where There is Unmet Need: Understanding Patient and Physician Perspectives and Considerations to Take Forward
• November 19, 2014 Think Tank, Statistical Issues Think Tank II
• October 11-12, 2012 Expert Meeting, Antibacterial Drug Development: Issues in the Design of Trials in Patients with Unmet Need and in Patients with Hospital-Acquired and Ventilator-Associated Bacterial Pneumonia
• August 20, 2012 Think Tank, CTTI Antibacterial Drug Development: Statistical Issues Think Tank Meeting

An expert meeting was held in 2012 to define potential pathways and explore new paradigms to accelerate the development of new antibacterial drugs that would address unmet medical need and to discuss issues in ABDD clinical trial design, including endpoints and operational efficiencies specific to the development of antibacterial drugs for treating patients with hospital-acquired or ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (HABP/VABP). Participants agreed that it is critical for all stakeholders to work together to characterize novel research models and seek alternatives to traditional superiority trials in ABDD. The following paragraphs summarize suggestions made by the experts to address particular trial issues in ABDD.

To address challenges with enrollment into ABDD trials, experts suggested the following: performing studies in geographic areas where the pathogen is endemic, or where there is a greater likelihood of encountering serious infections; improving rapid diagnostics; and creating large networks of research sites to ensure consistency and efficiency in the execution of innovative trials. The latter may also facilitate collaboration and improve coordination for a more rapid response to newly identified outbreaks of resistant pathogens. Issues with clinical trial design and data analyses may be simplified by including a development/approval pathway using a smaller clinical trial database, using well-defined and reliable efficacy endpoints, and identifying suitable control groups for various study design scenarios. Potential solutions in ABDD to meet the unmet need for antibacterial drugs may rely on accelerated approval, heightened post-marketing surveillance, collaboration among stakeholders, and the efforts of those involved in the clinical trials ecosystem to establish a new model of ABDD.

At the expert meeting, attendees also discussed unmet need in HABP/VABP. They explored topics such as the feasibility of endpoints, biomarkers, and other surrogates in HABP/VABP trials; collaborative efforts for data sharing/mining across the available clinical databases; and the need for additional education and potential acceptance of both accelerated approval and use of alternative endpoints in ABDD. Experts also discussed potential solutions to improving the operational efficiency and feasibility of HABP/VABP trials. Briefly, streamlining strategies were discussed as well as plain-language informed consent forms, site pre-approval for enrollment of future studies, simplified data collection, promotion of FDA guidances, clearer public communication, and use of organized research groups (e.g., AIDS Clinical Trial Group) as models. HABP/VABP trial-specific results are presented and discussed in more detail in the Streamlining HABP/VABP Trials Project.

Organization affiliations are listed as active affiliations during the project.

*Indicates former project manager, team leader, or team member.