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Aridis Pharmaceuticals' drug fails to cure pneumonia subtype in mid-stage study

Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s experimental medicine failed to cure a type of lung infection that occurs in patients who are assisted by mechanical ventilation breathing machines.

Consequently, the San Jose, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company has decided not to allocate further development resources to drug AR-105.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia, or VAP, usually develops 48 hours or longer after a person has been given mechanical ventilation via endotracheal tube. It is most common in patients admitted in an intensive care unit.

Under the phase 2 trial, AR-105 was tested in 158 patients with VAP caused by the presence of a bacterium called gram-negative pseudomonas aeruginosa and admitted to an ICU. The aim of the study was to see if the drug cured pneumonia within a 21-day period.

The study group was divided into patients who received a combination of the standard of care therapy and placebo versus those who were given AR-105. The results showed that Aridis' drug failed to cure pneumonia and therefore did not establish its superiority to the present standard medication for VAP patients.

Additionally, the group given placebo-induced medication had significantly lower all-cause mortality rate and serious adverse event, or SAE rates. No deaths or SAEs under the trial was associated with the intake of AR-105, according to the data monitoring committee.

AR-105 is part of Aridis Pharmaceuticals' collection of anti-infective immunotherapies. The company has another drug, AR-301, in its phase 3 trial to treat VAP caused by gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus.

Recently, Aridis' medication AR-501 received orphan drug status in Europe to treat lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis.