ActivBiotics Announces Patent Issuances Covering Combination Anti-Chlamydial Therapies to Treat Chronic Inflammatory Diseases

LEXINGTON, Mass. -- ActivBiotics, Inc. today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently issued two patents exclusively licensed from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The patents cover the use of two or more anti- chlamydial compounds to clear bacterial infections. Also covered is the use of immunosuppressive or anti-inflammatory agents in combination with anti- chlamydial therapeutic agents.

"Limiting antibiotic resistance and preventing post-therapy persistent infections will be the criteria by which future antibiotics are judged," said ActivBiotics CEO Chalom Sayada. "An increasing number of pathogens are resistant to the current standard of care antibiotics. In addition, it is now clear that many antibiotics are effective only against replicating pathogens and have little or no effect against stringent or persistent non-multiplying forms. These forms are suspected to exacerbate inflammation in a large number of chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and asthma. New formulations to treat these diseases will require more targeted and potent antibiotics, and in some cases, combination therapies may become the new standard of care."

William Mitchell, MD, PhD, professor of pathology at Vanderbilt University and co-founder of ActivBiotics, added, "These patents strongly position the company for the clinical use of combination therapies, which seem inevitable given the increasing level of bacterial resistance and our new understandings of bacterial persistence. Combination therapies are already the 'standard of care' in treating many viral infections, as well as certain bacterial infections such as tuberculosis and gastrointestinal infections of Helicobacter pylori. Combination antibiotic therapies are likely to become the norm in treating many other persistent pathogens like Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia pneumoniae."

ActivBiotics, a privately owned pharmaceutical company, is focused on the development and commercialization of antibacterials for the treatment of acute and chronic diseases. Among other programs, ActivBiotics is developing Rifalazil, a potent broad-spectrum antibiotic that targets and inhibits the transcriptional machinery of bacteria. Rifalazil is currently in clinical development with Phase I and Phase II trials underway or planned for several indications.

Source: ActivBiotics, Inc