Insects May Hold Key to New Drugs

ABC News
10/15/2001
By Ben Hirschler

Bugs-To-Drugs Firm Taps China for Insect Medicines

LONDON (Reuters) - Butterflies and beetles may hold the key to new drugs to fight infection and other diseases, according to a French biotechnology company that is working with Chinese scientists in the hunt for insect-based medicines.

Entomed SA announced plans on Monday to tap into Chinese know-how through a collaboration with the Shanghai Institute of Entomology.

The Strasbourg-based start-up, which hopes to float on the stock market around the end of 2003, claims to be the only firm in the world focused on insect medicine. It hopes to start clinical trials on its first experimental drug around the middle of next year.

Chief Executive Mario Thomas, in London for a European Biopartnering conference, argued that while 50% of modern medicines were derived from plants and microbes, insects had been neglected.

The world's 2 million catalogued species of insects have developed sophisticated immune systems over 500 million years, allowing them produce a range of molecules to fight off bacteria and other pathogens, he said.

Entomed's first drug candidate, ETD 151, was extracted from a South American butterfly larva and is scheduled to commence clinical trials in the latter half of 2002 for treating life-threatening fungal infections acquired in hospitals.

Further products are in development to fight a range of other diseases and to promote wound healing.

The firm hopes to uncover further leads through its work with the Shanghai Institute, which will supply insect extracts and give Entomed an insight into use of insects in traditional Chinese medicine.

Extracts of crushed insects have been used for hundreds of years in China to treat a range of ailments, including infections, inflammation and stomach complaints.

Thomas said his 30-strong steam of scientists had so far only scratched the surface of insects' chemical arsenals, sampling a mere 200 species since the Entomed's inception in 1999.

Nonetheless, a few clues have emerged as to which bugs contain the most promising agents.

"One thing we've found is that insects that go through full metamorphosis tend to produce more potent peptides (small proteins that can be used as drugs)," Thomas told Reuters.