Headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development, and commercialization of pharmaceutical products that address unmet medical needs in the acute care environment.
Cubist employs more than 570 people — approximately 350 in Massachusetts. The company's total net revenues increased 47% to $433.6 million in 2008 from $294.6 million in 2007.
Acute care is the space where we work and invest. In the U.S., Cubist markets CUBICIN® (daptomycin for injection), the first antibiotic in a new class of anti-infectives called lipopeptides. In July 2008, Cubist began promoting MERREM® I.V. (meropenem for injection) in the United States. MERREM is an established broad spectrum antibiotic developed by AstraZeneca. The Cubist clinical product pipeline currently consists of ecallantide, a recombinant human protein for the reduction of blood loss during cardiac surgery for which we currently are analyzing Phase 2 data; a Phase 2 program, added with Cubist's acquisition of Calixa Therapeutics in December 2009, focused on the development of a novel cephalosporin to address certain serious infections caused by multi-drug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative organisms; and two Phase 1 programs that address unmet medical needs in infectious disease, one for the treatment of CDAD (Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea) and the other for the treatment of serious infections caused by MDR Gram-negative pathogens. Cubist is also working on several pre-clinical programs, addressing areas of significant medical needs . These include an anti-infective program for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children, therapies to treat various serious bacterial infections, and agents to treat acute pain.
Founded in 1992, Cubist has maintained its focus on becoming a leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel acute care therapies for use in hospitals and other acute care environments.
Cubist completed its initial public offering (IPO) in 1996, and its shares are listed on NASDAQ (ticker symbol: CBST). In 1997, at a time when most pharmaceutical companies had abandoned discovery and development of antibiotics, Cubist in-licensed daptomycin, a first-in-class cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic drug candidate, originally discovered by scientists at Eli Lilly, which had discontinued its work on daptomycin as a drug candidate. Based on a breakthrough by Cubist scientists, Cubist resumed human trials with daptomycin in I.V. form, and the drug was approved by the FDA as CUBICIN for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections caused by susceptible strains of the following Gram-positive microorganisms: Staphylococcus aureus (including methicillin-resistant strains, also known as MRSA), Streptococcus pyogenes, S. agalactiae, S. dysgalactiae subsp equisimilis and Enterococcus faecalis (vancomycin-susceptible strains only) and launched in the U.S. in 2003. CUBICIN has to date experienced the most successful antibiotic launch in U.S. history, on a dollar sales basis. In 2005, Cubist submitted an sNDA seeking an expanded label for the use of CUBICIN for the treatment of S. aureus bloodstream infections (bacteremia), including right-sided infective endocarditis caused by MRSA and MSSA, based on results of the company's landmark Phase 3 trial studying the treatment of S. aureus bloodstream infections, including infective endocarditis. Following the positive recommendations of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee in March 2006, the FDA approved an expanded U.S. label for CUBICIN on May 25, 2006.
Since obtaining approval from the FDA in 2003, CUBICIN has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales that helped propel Cubist into one of the Commonwealth's best-performing firms, as evidenced by being ranked first among the "Top 100" Massachusetts-based publicly traded companies by The Boston Globe in its 21st annual "Globe 100" listing of 2009. Cubists revenue grew 47 percent in 2008 to $434 million and profit more than quadrupled to $170 million. Today, Cubists commercial organization is responsible for sales of CUBICIN and promotion of MERREM I.V. in the United States, and we partner with other pharmaceutical companies to make CUBICIN available outside the United States. CUBICIN is approved today in more than 60 countries, and the list continues to grow.
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