Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Cubist starts in-human tests of bacterial infection drug

By Mass High Tech staff

Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. has announced the start of a Phase 1 human clinical trials of its CB-182,804 drug to treat gram-negative infections.

The Lexington-based biopharmaceuticals firm is testing the “potent, bactericidal, I.V. therapy,” shown to work safely and effectively in animals, to treat E. coli, Acinetobacter, Kiebsiella and Pseudomonas.  The study is the first of its kind on humans.

Cubist announced on Friday its first Phase 1 human clinical trials of its antibacterial drug treatment, CB-183,315, to treat C. difficile, which can cause a potentially life-threatening diarrhea, also known as CDAD. The company said that it filed an Investigational New Drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for CB-183,315, in December.

Last week, the company announced plans to file a patent infringement lawsuit against Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc., after receiving notice that Teva plans to issue a generic drug version of Cubist’s daptomycin for injection.

Cubist reported a 45 percent jump in third quarter 2008 revenue over the same period the previous year. Cubist had $76.3 million in Q3 2007 compared with $110.6 million in 2008.