CA24127 - Pan European Commission on Photoantimicrobial Testing (PanEuCOPT)

Drug discovery, followed by preclinical and clinical testing, is a prerequisite for any new medicine. Approximately 15,000 new chemical entities are tested for each marketed drug. In vitro and in vivo drug discovery screens are therefore essential to provide robust, internationally standardised, and comparable data that can be used in hit-to-lead approaches.

Currently, novel antimicrobial strategies are needed, as newly approved antibacterial drugs have limited innovation and thus restricted clinical benefit over existing treatments. Photodynamic inhibition (PDI) therapy -utilizing the synergistic effect of drugs and light- is such an innovative broad-spectrum approach according to WHO criteria. Promising in vitro and in vivo studies show the potential, but PDI treatments are not recognised by pharmaceutical companies and are rarely part of university curricula. As a result, PDIs suffer from low awareness and high levels of scepticism. In addition, preclinical results from the community are difficult to compare due to a lack of standardised protocols.

PanEuCOPT, as a pan-European initiative, aims to bring together the leading European photobiologist with their medical colleagues and pharmaceutical as well as technical companies to generate a united force allowing the implementation of photodynamic inhibition. The COST action PanEuCOPT is planned over four years and is based on four pillars. PanEuCOPT will realize in an agile manner i) standardized testing protocols, ii) irritation device guidelines, iii) education, and iv) terminology. The vision of PanEuCOPT is pushing the PDI towards clinical studies/ EMA approvements so that a functional alternative to the prescription of classic antibiotics can be established.