VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company structured around anti-infective agents and the develomentof new antibacterial therapeutic products to address multi-drug resistant gram negative bacteria. These include resistant E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa, important causative agents for complicated urinary tract infections, complicated intra-abdominal infections and many types of serious pneumonia. The firm's work is organized around ?-Lactam antibiotics -- a broad class of antibiotics that includes penicillins, cephalosporins , monobactams, and carbapenems. Because of their efficacy and safety, ?-lactams are the most commonly used antibiotics in the world. Almost 60% of all antibiotics prescribed in US hospitals are ?-lactams1. ?-Lactams work by binding to bacterial proteins called Penicillin Binding Proteins (PBPs). PBPs are a family of essential bacterial enzymes involved in the synthesis of peptidoglycan, the major component of the bacterial cell wall. When ?-lactam antibiotics bind to PBPs, they disrupt the integrity of the cell wall, leading to bacterial lysis and death. Unfortunately, many bacteria produce resistance enzymes, ?-lactamases, which inactivate the ?-lactam antibiotic, thereby preventing the antibiotic from reaching and binding to the PBPs. In so doing, the bacteria protects itself against the antibiotic. The recent spread of these ?-lactamase enzymes amongst gram negative bacteria (in particular, the Enterobacteriaceae family, the principal causative pathogens for urinary tract infections and intra-abdominal infections, among others) is significantly compromising the clinical utility of ?-lactam antibiotics. VenatoRx approaches to innovation in the ?-lactam space VenatoRx focuses on specific approaches to address the issue of ?-lactam resistance. Such approaches include: ?-Lactamase inhibitors: rescue of ?-lactams from inactivation by bacterial ?-lactamases; Next generation ?-lactams: ?-lactams with unique bacterial coverage, enhanced affinity for target-mutated Gram positives (e.g., MRSA) and broad Gram negative coverage, including Pseudomonas; Next generation PBP inhibitors: novel (non-?-lactam) antibiotics acting on the penicillin binding proteins (PBPs) to disrupt cell wall synthesis
