Cumbre Inc. Receives NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Grant to Test Proprietary Agents Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2003

Cumbre Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has been awarded a Phase I NIH/SBIR grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The grant, entitled "Novel inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNA Polymerase," was awarded to support studies aimed at further investigating the potential of a novel synthetic chemistry series for development as a new anti-tuberculosis drug.

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death from infectious diseases worldwide; one third of the world population is infected with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that causes TB and approximately 2 million persons die each year from TB. Moreover, some strains of TB are resistant to up to seven or more of the drugs currently administered to treat the disease. These multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB strains require prolonged treatment regimes that can take years to be successful. As no new agents have been commercialized to treat TB in 30 years, new efficacious drugs are now needed to combat TB resistance development and spread and to reduce treatment times.

Rifampicin, one of the currently approved antibiotics for TB, kills bacteria through inhibition of a key bacterial enzyme called RNA polymerase. However, mutational resistance to rifampicin is common during routine TB therapy despite its inclusion in combination therapies designed to limit the emergence of resistance. Cumbre has developed a novel series of antibacterial compounds that also inhibits RNA polymerase via a mechanism distinct from rifampicin and that has been validated through combined efforts in biochemistry, genetics and structural modeling. To date, these compounds have been optimized for activity against pathogens of primary concern in the treatment of community and hospital infections in North America and Europe. The aim of the newly funded program is to evaluate the potential of these compounds against Mycobacterium species including M. tuberculosis and to determine whether there maybe a therapeutically relevant benefit of combining the Cumbre inhibitor series with rifampicin through suppression of resistance development.

"We are excited to undertake this new initiative in TB research," said Dr. A. Simon Lynch, Director of Research at Cumbre Inc. and Principal Investigator on the grant.

About Cumbre Inc.

Cumbre, a privately held biopharmaceutical company founded in February 2001, is dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel antibacterial therapeutics and is located in Dallas.

For more information, please visit our website at www.cumbre.biz.