Yale-BioHaven Entrepreneurship Series Presents Rib-X Pharmaceuticals "Designing Novel Antibiotics"

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 23 Jan 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The Yale BioHaven Entrepreneurship Seminars series will begin its 2008 schedule with a program on the New Haven start-up company Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. on Tuesday, February 12 from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Anlyan Center Auditorium, Yale School of Medicine, 300 Cedar Street.

The featured speakers from Rib-X will be President and Chief Executive Officer Susan Froshauer, and Erin Duffy, the Vice President of Structure-Based Drug Design. They will discuss the Rib-X research goals for design of proprietary classes of antibacterial agents.

Rib-X focuses on the design and development of novel small-molecule antibiotics for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections in hospital and community settings. Since its inception in 2001, Rib-X has established a portfolio of development and discovery-stage antibiotic compounds, including RX-3341, a broad-spectrum intravenous quinolone antibiotic that will soon enter Phase 3 studies, and RX-1741, an orally administered oxazolidinone antibiotic now in two Phase 2 studies.

Many classic antibiotics work by inhibiting operation of the ribosome - a part of the protein synthesizing machinery that is essential for the function of all bacterial pathogens. A key advantage for Rib-X is proprietary access to the high-resolution crystal structure of the ribosome, which provides physical and chemical information for designing useful small molecules.

Yale University