Empowered Patient Podcast Developing Synthetic Anti-Infectives New Class of Antibiotics to Overcome Antimicrobial Resistance with James Graham Recce Pharmaceuticals
James Graham is the CEO of Recce Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on the global antibiotic-resistant patient population. This new class of synthetic antibiotics takes a broad-spectrum approach to kill bacterial infections, which continue to mutate, rendering existing antibiotics ineffective. The founding inventor of Recce is Dr. Graham Melrose, the grandfather of James, who has grown this idea into one of the top-performing biotech stocks in Australia.
James explains, "As you may know, by my accent, I’m an Australian. I think Australia found the first penicillin, which worked well for everyone around the world for a number of years. But it’s time for a new penicillin, penicillin 2.0, or one entirely synthetic, not reliant on existing natural processes. And that’s what we’ve fundamentally started with, beginning with the end in mind that is Recce antibiotics. So I really say the challenge, the silent pandemic is right upon us. You only have to look at the AMR resistance rates. I think raising at about 10% each year, certainly in certain antibiotic or indication groups. If we don’t do something, we’re just going to have these useless drugs that no one will pay the price for anyway. The business model will be broken, and everybody will be out of options. It’s really the pandemic before us."
"I hinted that R327 is synthetic. It’s entirely synthetic when all existing antibiotics to date are naturally derived. So the way antibiotics and bacteria have always worked is that you find something in nature by way of the antibiotic. The bacteria are too smart. They evolve too quickly, and let’s begin with the end in mind and create something that will work against all types of bacteria, gram-positive gram-negative in their hypercellular mutated forms, and keep on working with repeated use."
"And in the case of my origins with Recce, the inventor, Dr. Graham Melrose, is actually my grandfather. He turned 90 years old about a little over a month ago, and he's the guy who was the head of Johnson & Johnson Australasia for about a decade. He is the foundational inventor of this compound. And he and I started this company. He's the inventor. I just gave him a bit of money, and off we went. That's the easy part. He started identifying the ideal compound in his garage in Perth in Western Australia. If anyone knows where that is, it's actually the most isolated city in the world."
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