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ENABLE: an engine for European antibacterial drug discovery and development

ENABLE is an antibacterial drug discovery and development consortium formed as a public–private partnership in 2014 as part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB) programme. With the project soon ending, here we provide a brief overview and reflect on its achievements, strengths and weaknesses.
  1. Marie Olliver

    1. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

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  2. Laura Griestop

    1. BIOCOM, Berlin, Germany.

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  3. Diarmaid Hughes

    1. Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

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  4. Anna Karin Belfrage

    1. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

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  5. Johan Gising

    1. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

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  6. Pawel Baranczewski

    1. Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University Drug Optimization and Pharmaceutical Profiling and SciLifeLab Drug Discovery and Development Platform, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

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  7. Carina Vingsbo Lundberg

    1. Bacteria, Parasites & Fungi, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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  8. Anders Karlén

    1. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

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Despite an urgent need for new antibiotics, many large pharmaceutical companies have abandoned antibiotic research because antibiotic development is scientifically challenging and economically unprofitable. Public–private partnerships could play a key role in facilitating the mobilization of resources from various stakeholders to accelerate the development of new antibiotics, and here we discuss one such partnership: ENABLE (European Gram-Negative Antibacterial Engine). The 7-year project was launched by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a joint initiative between the EU and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), with the goal to replenish the pipeline of antibiotics for systemic Gram-negative infections, targeting the key pathogens Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 20, 407-408 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-021-00074-y

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all colleagues and partners involved in ENABLE (Supplementary Table 2), and gratefully acknowledge PMC members and platform leads for providing valuable insights. The authors wish to thank members of the Consortium Management Office, C. Nilsson, E. Bacqué, N. Pearson, R. Neal, F. Deroose, A. Lobell, N. Murillo, L. Löwenau and C. Robijns, for their contributions as well as critical reading of the manuscript. R. Stavenger is acknowledged for his tremendous efforts in helping to set up ENABLE and ensuring its smooth running in the early years. The authors have received support from the IMI Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 115583, resources of which are composed of financial contributions from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme and EFPIA companies’ in-kind contributions.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this article are the views of the authors and neither IMI nor the European Union or EFPIA are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.

Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary information

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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