SCYNEXIS, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCYX), a biotechnology company pioneering innovative medicines to overcome and prevent difficult-to-treat and drug-resistant infections, today announced the presentation of preclinical efficacy data on its second generation fungerp candidate SCY-247.
Dr. Ashraf Ibrahim, PhD, FAAM, FECCM, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and an investigator at the Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, presented a poster entitled, “SCY-247, a novel second-generation IV/oral triterpenoid antifungal, is efficacious in the neutropenic mouse model of pulmonary mucormycosis,” at the 11th Advances Against Aspergillosis and Mucormycosis (AAAM) Conference in Milan, Italy from January 25 – 27. Mucormycosis is a life-threatening fungal infection with an associated mortality that ranges from 46% to 96%4, most commonly affecting immunocompromised patients including those with leukemia, patients undergoing bone marrow transplants, and patients affected by severe COVID or uncontrolled diabetes mellitus.
In this highly lethal mouse model of mucormycosis, SCY-247 showed very promising in vivo efficacy. Orally administered SCY-247 resulted in 40% and 50% survival at 21 days post infection for the intermediate (32 mg/kg) and high doses (48 mg/kg), respectively, compared to 0% survival in the placebo group (p = 0.011 and 0.007, respectively). This is comparable to the 40% survival observed in the control group treated with 10 mg/kg of intravenous standard of care of liposomal amphotericin B (LAMB) (p = 0.008 vs. placebo). Even more encouraging was a 90% survival observed in the group receiving combination therapy of SCY-247 32 mg/kg plus LAMB 10 mg/kg (p < 0.0001 vs. placebo and p < 0.05 vs. monotherapy). The positive survival data correlated with a statistically significant fungal burden reduction in both lung and brain tissue with SCY-247 32 mg/kg dose (p = 0.0288 and 0.0355 vs. placebo, respectively) and 48 mg/kg dose (p = 0.0015 and 0.0052 vs. placebo, respectively) as well as with the active control LAMB (p = 0.0005 vs. placebo for both lung and brain tissues). The combination treatment of SCY-247 plus LAMB demonstrated the greatest reduction in fungal burden and was highly statistically significant in both lung and brain tissue (both p < 0.0001 vs. placebo).
“The potent antifungal efficacy of SCY-247 in a murine model of pulmonary mucormycosis alone and in combination with liposomal amphotericin B provides an important preclinical rationale for further development of this new therapeutic agent,” said Thomas J. Walsh, MD, FCCP, FAAM, FIDSA, Director of the Center for Innovative Therapeutics and Diagnostics in Richmond, Virginia.
“The opportunity to significantly improve the lives of patients suffering from life-threatening fungal infections is a key driver for all of us at SCYNEXIS, and positive results like the ones presented at AAAM reinvigorate our commitment to providing innovative tools in the fight against deadly infections,” said David Angulo, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of SCYNEXIS. “These positive data continue to accumulate and define the unique properties of SCY-247, highlighting its potential to be differentiated from currently available antifungals. We continue to expeditiously advance the development of this promising antifungal with plans to be in a clinical stage by year end.”
The work reported here utilized the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID’s) suite of preclinical services for in vivo testing (Contract No. HHSN272201700039I/ 75N93022F00001).
