Accelr8 Technology Corporation (NYSE Amex: AXK) presented new data at the 109th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in Philadelphia. Company scientists and their collaborators from the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine (Barnes-Jewish Hospital) reported results for Accelr8’s rapid test for identifying organisms that produce the new “KPC” antibiotic-destroying enzyme. KPC is the first rapidly spreading resistance enzyme to emerge that attacks all members of the largest and most important antibiotic super-family. The family includes a group of drugs known as carbapenems, sometimes called “gorillacillin” by hospital staff because they attack a broad spectrum of otherwise resistant organisms. Because of their importance, physicians prefer to reserve these drugs unless other antibiotics fail.
KPC tends to occur in organisms that are likely to express resistance against most other antibiotic classes. By attacking carbapenems, KPC eliminates a critical fall-back antibiotic class and may render its host bacteria resistant to all but a last-resort antibiotic. KPC emerged recently and spread quickly in North America, then jumped to other continents, and is now spreading into more bacterial species.
The new study used recent clinical isolates from Barnes-Jewish Hospital. KPC has quickly increased in St. Louis to make it an urgent threat.
Another part of the presentation reported additional results from a collaborative study with the Denver Health Medical Center on new tests for two additional multi-drug resistant bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. Using the company’s BACcel™ laboratory prototypes in three different laboratories, the new analyses yielded accurate results in less than 3 hours, as opposed to the 2-3 days required for culturing.
According to David Howson, Accelr8’s president, “The new tests join our previously reported rapid identification and drug resistance tests for the worst multi-resistant organisms found in the ICU. We believe that the KPC test is particularly important because of KPC’s explosive spread and the difficulty of even identifying these organisms using standard methods. We continue to demonstrate fast, consistent performance with the most deadly pathogens responsible for hospital-acquired infections.”
Finally, the company also announced issuance of a new OptiChem® patent, US 7,501,157 for hydroxyl functional coatings.
About Accelr8
Accelr8 Technology Corporation (www.accelr8.com) is a developer of innovative materials and instrumentation for advanced applications in medical instrumentation, basic research, drug discovery, and bio-detection. Accelr8 is developing a rapid analytical platform for infectious pathogens, the BACcel™ system, based on its innovative surface coatings, assay processing, and detection technologies. In addition, Accelr8 licenses certain of its proprietary technology for use in applications outside of Accelr8’s own products.
Certain statements in this news release may be “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements regarding future prospects and developments are based upon current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from the forward-looking statement, including those detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accelr8 does not undertake an obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events.
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