Biopharmaceutical company Motif Bio plc (AIM:MTFB) (NASDAQ:MTFB) will present new pre-clinical data for its investigational drug candidate iclaprim at the IDWeek 2017 conference in San Diego, California, the company announced on Friday.

Motif Bio, which specialises in the clinical stage development of novel antibiotics, will share details from its Efficacy Evaluation of Iclaprim in a Neutropenic Rat Lung Infection Model with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Entrapped in Alginate Microspheres trial.

The vivo study sought to establish the therapeutic potential of iclaprim in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) lung infections. It found that regardless of dosage, the iclaprim-treated rats demonstrated 100% survival (33/33), while the vancomycin group demonstrated 91.7% survival (22/24) and the control group showed 48.3% survival (14/29).

Dr David Huang, chief medical officer of Motif Bio, said: "Following the recently announced positive, top-line Phase 3 REVIVE-2 clinical trial results for iclaprim for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI), the data presented today at IDWeek underscore the potential utility of iclaprim in a range of patient populations with suspected MRSA infections, including cystic fibrosis patients with Staphylococcus aureus lung infections.

"The encouraging new data presented today support developing iclaprim as a potential treatment option for MRSA infections in patients with cystic fibrosis, and iclaprim was recently granted Orphan Drug Designation in the US for Staphylococcus aureus lung infections in this patient group."