Cellceutix Enthusiastic About Proposed Budget Increase to $1.2 Billion to Fight Drug-Resistance Bacteria

BEVERLY, MA--(Marketwired - Jan 27, 2015) - Cellceutix Corporation (OTC: CTIX) (the "Company"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies with oncology, dermatology and antimicrobial applications, is pleased to learn this morning that President Barack Obama will call upon Congress to double funding dedicated to fighting drug-resistant bacteria to $1.2 billion in his annual budget request scheduled to be released on Monday. 

As part of the new budget plan, the President wants to see a sharp increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for antibacterial research and diagnostics, as well as additional funds for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for evaluation of new antibiotic drugs. Experts have been warning of the great need for new drugs to combat "superbugs," deadly bacteria that do not respond to most of today's approved drugs, with the Obama administration calling antibiotic resistance a serious threat to public health and the economy in an Executive Order last September.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that antibiotic resistance causes about two million illnesses each year and is responsible for 23,000 deaths in the United States. Perhaps nothing exemplifies how deadly superbugs can be quite like the outbreak of Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) Klebsiella pneumoniae at the National Institute of Health's Clinical Center in 2012 that killed 11 people. Last month, Forbes published an article discussing the potential danger of athletes and visitors contracting and spreading drug-resistant infections at the upcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro following the Brazil Health ministry determining water in Guanabara Bay contained multi-drug resistant organisms carrying carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae enzymes.

Cellceutix's research partners have been awarded $2 million in grants from the National Institute of Health, including a recent grant of $500,000 for research on drug-resistant Gram-negative infections.

Cellceutix believes that with its defensin-mimetic portfolio it has the most advanced class of antibiotics to attack and destroy this and possibly other superbugs. The killing ability of the compound against carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae is astounding. Cellceutix is presently conducting safety testing and subsequently will determine if the drug is to be advanced to clinical trials. The Company continues to work with its collaborators at Fox Chase to develop a novel drug candidate as quickly as possible to be ready for the Rio 2016 Olympics where this may become a serious threat.