Data was presented at the 47th annual interscience conference on antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy conference showing that ulifloxacin, the active metabolite of prulifloxacin, Optimer's prodrug antibiotic product candidate, has significantly higher antibiotic activity in vitro than ciprofloxacin, the current standard of care for infectious gastroenteritis, or traveler's diarrhea. The study was conducted and presented by JMI Laboratories, a contract research laboratory.
Optimer's president and CEO Michael Chang commented: “These results demonstrate a significant breadth of antimicrobial activity and support our development of prulifloxacin for the treatment of travelers' diarrhea. We are advancing prulifloxacin through two pivotal Phase III clinical trials with the goal of bringing this compound to the US market.”
Optimer scientists also presented data demonstrating the narrow spectrum of activity exhibited by lead clinical candidate, OPT-80 and its major metabolite, OP-1118, against 32 strains of bacteria which commonly populate the gastrointestinal tract. In this study, OP-1118 demonstrated similar selective in vitro antimicrobial activity against Clostridium difficile and was as active in vitro as vancomycin against Clostridium difficile.