CF-370 is a lytic agent engineered by ContraFect Corporation to target the multi-drug resistant pathogen P. aeruginosa and has been nominated by the clinical-stage biotech company to be their next product candidate.

In a ContraFect press release, the company stated that the "CF-370 was nominated for further development based on its potent in vitro bactericidal and antibiofilm activity and in vivo activity, and tolerability in preclinical animal models, favorable manufacturing profile, and potentially favorable intellectual property rights for a proprietary engineered lysin."

Multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa is listed as a 'serious threat' in the 2019 CDC report 'Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States and the pre-clinical data on CF-370's efficacy and tolerability as a potential targeted therapeutic caused by the gram-negative pathogen has proved it to be a worthy candidate.

Contrafect will now advance Lysin CF-370 into IND-enabling (investigation New Drug) studies, the primary pathway through which drugs and biologics are approved to be tested in humans. In preclinical rabbit pneumonia models, single doses of CF-370 alone and in combination with the antibiotic, meropenem, were tested against multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa to evaluate survival and bacterial burden in lung and secondary organs. In these models, strong efficacy was observed for CF-370 as a monotherapy, showing rabbits dosed with CF-370 alone had longer survival, as compared to vehicle control, and reductions in bacterial burden in lung, kidney and spleen with single doses of CF-370. Synergy with meropenem was also noted with greater reductions in bacterial burden compared to monotherapy. In these models, CF-370 was well tolerated with no adverse clinical consequences and no deaths among animals infected with P. aeruginosa.