Emergence of antibiotic resistance has created a medical crisis. Life- threatening bacterial pathogens, such as Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis, have developed widespread resistance to current antibiotics. Infectious disease has become the third leading cause of death in the United States. At Cubist Pharmaceuticals, novel bacterial targets have been identified to produce new classes of antibiotics to address the increasing mortality caused by infectious disease. SecA is one of such targets that has been chosen for screening of drug leads. SecA is a unique key component involved in bacterial protein translocation and is essential for cell growth. In this Phase I research, a significant number of compounds with diverse chemical structures will be screened. Secondary screens will also be established to characterize the identified HTS leads. In the subsequent phases, the leads identified will be subjected for optimization and drug development. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Antibiotics constitute a market of more than $1 billion annual worldwide sales. New classes of antimicrobial agents are urgently needed to combat the widespread drug resistance, and therefore have great commercial potential.
