Sihuan Pharmaceutical Announces Acquisition of All Interests and Intellectual Property Rights of Plazomicin

According to PRNewswire.com, Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd. (HKEX: 0460, "Sihuan Pharmaceutical", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") is pleased to announce that Xuanzhu (HK) Biopharmaceutical Limited (''Xuanzhu''), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Group, acquired all interests and intellectual property rights of plazomicin, a new generation of aminoglycoside antibiotics, in China, from Achaogen, Inc. (''Achaogen''), a company incorporated in Delaware, the United States of America.

Achaogen is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of broad-spectrum antibiotics to treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections. The company is pursuing preclinical programs in several other areas of interest to combat the global emergence of bacterial resistance.

Plazomicin is a new generation of semisynthetic aminoglycoside antibiotics developed by Achaogen. It produces antibacterial effect mainly through binding to bacterial 30S ribosomal subunits and is used to treat severe infections caused by multi-drug resistance (''MDR'') gram-negative bacteria and enterobacteriaceae, including the carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae. 

In China, MDR bacterial infections are mainly acquired in hospital and most of the infected individuals are immunocompromised due to various reasons. Viral infections, such as novel coronavirus infection, can cause invasion of lymphocytes and damage to the immune system. A person with reduced immunity might develop secondary bacterial infections, which increases the risk of acquiring further infections in the hospital.

There are very limited choices of drugs for the clinical treatment of MDR bacteria, however, the only few treatment options have limited clinical application due to issues such as severe renal toxicity. Plazomicin injection was launched in June 2018 with the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of complex urinary tract infections and acute pyelonephritis in adults. Currently, clinical application confirms that plazomicin significantly reduces the risk of renal toxicity than previous generations of aminoglycosides.

Founded in 2001, Sihuan Pharmaceutical is a pharmaceutical group with 21 subsidiaries and integrated R&D, production and marketing and sales capabilities. Because of the continuing efforts over the past decade, Sihuan Pharmaceutical has formed an R&D platform with over 1,000 researchers conducting more than 110 pharmaceutical research projects currently. More than 300 patents on innovative drugs were granted in China and over 80 are PCT patents, covering pipeline projects including important areas of diabetes, oncology, anti-infectives, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, etc.