In 2009, Cumbre IP Ventures, L.P., acquired all of the assets of Cumbre Pharmaceuticals Inc. In association with 2M BioTech, L.P., Cumbre IP Ventures is seeking to partner these assets. These include Cumbre's multi-functional antibiotics platform, which in turn includes lead drug candidate CBR-2092, for which Phase I clinical trials have been successfully completed, as well as metronidazole-bearing hybrid antibiotics for use against gastrointestinal diseases, including potential lead candidate CBR-2198. In addition, Cumbre's extensive bacterial strains collection is available for partnering. Additional information regarding each of these can be found via the links on this page.

Of the five main resistance mechanisms that bacteria utilize to defeat currently-used antibiotics, two general mechanisms - efflux and target modification - have impacted the clinical utility of all currently used agents.  The Multi-Functional Antibiotics Platform was specifically designed to address these two general mechanisms through creating novel antimicrobial agents that circumvent pre-existing resistance traits in key target pathogens and are by their nature inherently less prone to de novo resistance development.  In these chemistry-driven programs, two different “single-function” antibiotics - or antibiotic “pharmacophores” - are chemically fused together to yield hybrid “multi-functional” agents that retain the critical antimicrobial properties of both parent molecules while overcoming their individual resistance development liabilities.  Importantly, these Multi-Functional Antibiotics are designed to be both chemically and metabolically stable molecules and therein are not active as pro-drugs.  This feature ensures that both antibiotic pharmacophores are delivered equally in the body at all target sites of infection.

The design, synthesis and evaluation of a number of different Multi-Functional Antibiotic series was successful in that these agents were able to defeat both target- and efflux-based resistance mechanisms.  Further, due to their multiple modes of action, the Multi-Functional Antibiotic agents are inherently less prone to resistance development.  These combined features underlay the superior activity profile of our platform of Multi-Functional Antibiotics when tested side-by-side with cocktail combinations of the parent antibiotics.