Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death in developing nations. Despite the advancements of drug discovery and development of a range of new effective antimicrobial agents, the threat of infectious diseases or death due to microbial infections still poses considerable challenges. Some of these challenges are (a) long treatment duration (6–9 months), (b) increased incidence of (multi or extensive) drug resistance, (c) co-morbidity with HIV-AIDS and (d) reduced effort in antiinfective drug discovery research. Therefore, the discovery and development of drugs with novel mechanism of action and novel diagnostic tests would certainly address these challenges. Among the recent drugs, bedaquiline and delamanid are being used for both latent and active tuberculosis (TB), though they seem to have potential cardiological side effects. Given the nature of TB, there is a need to change of focus from the more passive control approach to an active elimination approach.
Primetime is collaborating with NIST and NCATS/NIH to develop inhibitors for chorismate mutase. The chorismate mutase inhibitor would be a novel treatment for antimicrobial resistant infections. Antimicrobial resistance threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses, and fungi. According to WHO, it is an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society. Without effective antibiotics, the success of major surgery and cancer chemotherapy would be compromised. Globally, 480 000 people develop multi-drug resistant tuberculosis each year. Importantly, in 2013, CDC published a report outlining the top 18 drug-resistant threats to the United States and there is an urgent need for antimicrobial(s) with a novel target to combat this threat.