Target: Superbugs. Ohio drug startup focused on MRSA infection.
An Ohio startup is developing a new antibacterial drug that would keep so-called “superbugs” such as MRSA from replicating in the body. Promiliad Biopharma is hoping its early development efforts yield a new drug capable of beating bacteria that have grown resistant to most antibiotics on the market today. The most well-known example is a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA, infection. “The problem with the antibiotics out today are that their mechanisms are essentially well-known by bacteria, and the bacteria are rapidly developing to overcome them,” said Steve Bergmeier, one of Promiliad’s principals and a chemistry professor at Ohio University. The company’s technology works by targeting a specific enzyme that bacteria use to synthesize DNA. If bacteria are unable to synthesize DNA, they die because they can’t replicate, Bergmeier said.
