Based in Massachusetts but with lab faciliites also in Missouri, Casterbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a specialty Biotech company focused on the development of small-molecule anti-infectives drugs directed at important human disease. The firm's lead program: Herpes Simplex Virus Pre-Clinical R&D Program HSV-1 persistently infects nearly 2/3 of the U.S. population. The causes recurrent cold sores, more serious disease including potentially blinding stromal keratitis that affects 450,000 people in the U.S., and rare but often fatal encephalitis. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans is infected with HSV-2, and the global burden of HSV-2 infection extends to more than half a billion persons. The cost of incident HSV infections in the year 2000 was estimated to be $1.8 billion and is predicted to rise to $2.7 billion by 2015. Furthermore, viruses resistant to current therapies have emerged among pediatric patients, those with keratitis, and immunocompromised patients. Existing alternative therapies are few, are incompletely effective, and have high toxicity. Thus, new drugs against HSV-1 and HSV-2 are greatly needed. Casterbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. is executing a pre-Clinical R&D program to discover and develop new potent anti-HSV drug candidates for Clinical Development.
