Jersey City-based SCYNEXIS, Inc. on Monday said it was selected to participate in a major federal research effort aimed at combating the global health threat posed by drug-resistant fungal infections. The company’s novel antifungal compounds, known as fungerps, are among the projects funded by a new, five-year grant expected to provide $7 million annually to an academic consortium.
The federal funding, contingent upon the availability of funds from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), will establish a Center of Excellence in Translational Research (CETR). This CETR is jointly led by researchers from the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) in New Jersey and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, alongside other academic and commercial partners.
The grant will accelerate the development of next-generation antifungal therapeutics, including a novel series of SCYNEXIS’ proprietary triterpenoid antifungal candidates, or “fungerps.” These compounds are currently in the preclinical stage of development.
The goal of this collaboration is to advance these candidates from early preclinical stages to become Investigational New Drug (IND)-ready, meaning they are prepared to enter human clinical trials.
“With approximately four million annual deaths attributable to fungal infections globally, this new grant from the NIH provides essential funding to support the development of new therapeutics that can address the growing threat from resistant fungal infections,” Dr. David Angulo, president and chief executive officer of SCYNEXIS said.
The next generation fungerps are being developed with two key objectives:
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Enhanced Pharmacological Properties: To improve their effectiveness in treating fungal infections where current therapies are limited or completely ineffective.
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Broad-Spectrum Activity: To maintain a wide range of activity against increasingly multidrug-resistant fungal pathogens.
SCYNEXIS is pioneering the development of triterpenoid antifungals, a structurally distinct class of glucan synthase inhibitors. Glucan synthase inhibitors work by disrupting the creation of the fungal cell wall, making them highly effective. The triterpenoid class represents the first new class of antifungal compounds approved by the FDA since 2001.
SCYNEXIS’ first compound from this class, ibrexafungerp, has already been licensed to GSK and approved by the FDA under the name BREXAFEMME® for the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). The company is also currently progressing its second-generation fungerp, SCY-247, in Phase 1 development.
The inclusion of SCYNEXIS’ next-generation fungerps in this prestigious CETR collaboration highlights the company’s leading role in addressing the urgent need for new solutions to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), particularly in systemic fungal diseases which carry high mortality rates.
