Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc has received a special Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This grant resulted from an application in response to an NIH solicitation amendment to encourage "Bioterrorism-Related Research."

The recent emergence of Gram-positive bacteria resistant to many current antiinfective therapies presents a challenge to the pharmaceutical industry. New classes of inhibitory molecules are needed that are substantially different from the previous generations of drugs. This need has been heightened in the wake of recent occurrences of Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) infections, which have resulted in the call for additional antiinfectives to treat anthrax and other potential bioterrorist agents. Cubist is attempting to address this need through the use of target-based drug discovery technologies that focus efforts on bacterial targets not inhibited by current antiinfective agents.

Specifically, Cubist has been granted $250,000 to cover six months of research to identify broad-spectrum inhibitors of a novel bacterial target known as UppS (Undecaprenyl Diphosphate Synthase). The initial goal of the project is to identify drug candidates with efficacy against anthrax, but ideally against other Gram-positive and possibly Gram-negative bacteria as well. Bacillus anthracis is a large, Gram-positive, spore-forming rod.

The utility of the UppS target was originally validated by Cubist using its proprietary VITA technology, a system that accelerates the validation of novel antiinfective targets in an animal model while concurrently developing a high-throughput screening assay for use in discovering active drug candidates. In collaboration with Syrrx Inc., Cubist has been able to solve the three-dimensional structure of the target complexed with an inhibitor and has begun using this information to rationally design compounds with potential activity against the target.