Infectious Diseases

Inhibitex is a specialty biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the production of therapeutics to treat infectious diseases, specifically the viral infections Shingles and Hepatitis C, as well as Staph bacterial infections, which include the antibiotic resistant strain MRSA. The company’s anti-viral platform has led to the development of small molecule therapeutics that serve as potent treatments against Shingles and Hepatitis C, devastating viral infections that inflict over 2.5 million and 170 million patients world wide, respectively. The company has also developed a humanized antibody therapeutic that is effective against Staph infections, including MRSA, which works by binding to the bacteria and inhibiting its ability to invade the patient’s biological tissue. Staph infections, one third of which are MRSA, are a serious public health problem accounting for approximately 16% of all hospital acquired infections that lead to approximately 30 thousand deaths a year. The company’s anti-viral therapeutics are in Phase I clinical trials, and the anti-bacterial therapeutics are in Phase II clinical trials.