Pharma

Drugmaker targets riboswitches to combat antibiotic-resistant diseases

As long-trusted antibiotics encounter increased resistance by the bacterial pathogens they were originally designed to […]

As long-trusted antibiotics encounter increased resistance by the bacterial pathogens they were originally designed to kill, the need for novel anti-infective drug treatments is mounting. One young company has just raised $2.5 million to continue its work on developing treatments for infectious diseases by using bacterial RNA targets called riboswitches.

BioRelix Inc. is building a portfolio of anti-infective drug treatments that target riboswitches, or stretches of messenger RNAs that control genes essential to the survival of many disease-causing microbes. This strategy has applications in eliminating pathogens that are resistant to currently available drugs and focuses on the first new major class of targets for antibacterial drugs in decades, the company says.

In the wake of falling antibiotics sales due to generics, combined with the quick-changing nature of infective diseases, Big Pharma has nearly abandoned the search for new blockbuster oral antibiotics, which has led to a “distressingly low” pipeline, in the words of U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. Although prospects for the immediate future are thin, BioRelix is among a string of young biotech companies that are emerging with new ways to diagnose and treat infective diseases like tuberculosis, MRSA and pneumonia.

In 2010, BioRelix entered a research collaboration agreement with a subsidiary of Merck & Co Inc. to identify new antibacterial drug candidates.

According to the company’s recent U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing, the $2.5 million round came from eight investors. Past funding raised since the company was formed in 2005 has come from Novartis Venture Funds, CHL Medical Partners, Elm Street Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners, and Connecticut Innovations’ Eli Whitney Fund.  CEO Brian Dixon did not return a call for more information.

[Photo from renjith krishnan]

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