Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had been a smaller global biopharmaceutical company early active inthe SBIR space with focus on pharmaceutical products addressing unmet medical needs in the acute care market with a strong emphasis on work in the anitbiotics space partiuclarly pathogens like MRSA. The company marketed CUBICIN (daptomycin for injection), the first antibiotic in the US in a new class of anti-infectives called lipopeptidess. The product MERREM I.V. (meropenem for injection) - an established spectrum antibiotic developed by AstraZeneca - from 2008 was promoted by Cubiist. Very active in partnerships with many other firms - large and some SBIR involved - a coomon judgment was that Merck's $8.4B purchase of of Cubist in December 2014 was in large measure, driven by the larger firm's interest in entering the market presented by superbugs. Cubist's product pipeline included a recombinant human protein; products to reduce blood loss during cardiac surgery; and two Phase 1 programs (1) CDAD (Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea) and t(2) multi-drug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative infections. In addition, in collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.- itself an SBIR firm - Cubist had a pre-IND and a Phase 2 program underway in novel treatments for respiratory syncytial virus infections using Alnylam's RNA-interference technology. By mid-2016 Merck had shuttered its Cubist unit and closed operations.
