NEW YORK – Informatics analysis company Next Gen Diagnostics (NGD) said Monday that it has inked a partnership with Japanese pharmaceutical firm Shionogi to develop models for predicting microbial susceptibility to cefiderocol.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
As part of the agreement, NGD will leverage its computational methods and infrastructure to develop and validate whole-genome sequencing data to help determine microbial antibiotic susceptibility to cefiderocol, an antibiotic developed by Shionogi that is used to treat infections caused by certain resistant Gram-negative bacteria.
The sequencing-based analysis will eliminate the need for conventional special medium-based testing, according to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based NGD.
"This agreement with NGD will advance our efforts to provide different testing options for cefiderocol," Boudewijn de Jonge, Shionogi's director of microbiology, said in a statement. "NGD’s methods will help us better understand the complex, though infrequent, cefiderocol resistance mechanisms."