Cūrza is a small-molecule therapeutics company that has developed several structurally distinct classes of proprietary drugs focused on infectious diseases and oncology.
Cūrza's lead program (CZ-02) is a new class of broad spectrum antibiotics, focused on ESKAPE pathogens, with a focus on drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Inspired by a natural product, this class targets an unexploited binding site of the bacterial ribosome. With ever increasing reports of resistance to frontline therapies addressing Gram-negative bacteria, there is a critical need for new therapies that work in new ways. However, very little can be found in the development pipeline. As a result, Cūrza's compounds are addressing a major unmet medical need.
Technology
Ribosomal Antibiotics
In Cūrza’s Ribosomal Antibiotic Program, our focus is on developing novel antibiotics for ESKAPE pathogens or “superbugs”.
ESKAPE pathogens include Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter species and Escherichia coli. Cūrza has designed two novel classes of antibiotics that show both selectivity and potent activity against many of the ESKAPE pathogens.
Cūrza’s goal is to develop novel classes of antibiotics that combat the rising epidemic of antibiotic resistance that now kills over 700,000 people every year. Our goal is also to introduce a completely novel class of antibiotics to the market to fight the alarming emergence of bacteria that have developed resistance to all existing drug classes. Currently, drug-resistant pathogens cause mortality rates approaching 50 percent in some infection types. With hospital acquired infections and drug-resistant infections around the world on the rise, new classes of antibiotics are desperately needed.
Antibiofilm Antibiotics
Biofilms can also cause severe infections in our bodies. Tuberculosis, diabetic ulcers, Lyme disease, medical device-related infections, osteomyelitis, chronic skin wounds and infections that accompany cystic fibrosis are all examples of biofilm-related infections.
Infections caused by biofilms can be much more difficult to treat than infections caused by planktonic bacteria. These infections may become chronic and often do not respond to traditional antibiotics and often recur when antibiotic treatment is stopped.
Current antimicrobial products are failing to address the biofilm problem. For this reason, Cūrza is developing a first-in-class series of antibiofilm antibiotics that are specifically targeted toward killing and eradicating bacteria in the biofilm phenotype. No antibiotic has been developed previously with this specific intent. Cūrza is the world leader in the development of antibiofilm antibiotic technology and is dedicated to protecting our world from the harmful, even life-threatening effects of biofilms.