Everyday, physicians are seeing more and more patients with life threatening infections for which they have no treatment options. In the United States, it has been estimated that as many as one hospital patient in ten acquires an infection, or up to 2 million patients a year. These infections are responsible for more than 100,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone and estimates of the annual treatment costs for these infections range from $4.5 billion to more than $11 billion. Overall, infectious diseases remain the third leading cause of death in the United States each year and the second ranking cause of death worldwide. The economic impact of infectious diseases is also great, with an estimated annual cost in excess of $120 billion.
Current non-specific, broad spectrum antibiotic approaches to the majority of infectious diseases have contributed to the emergence of micro-organisms resistant to multiple therapies (superbugs), thus compounding the clinical problem. The use of “pathogen-specific” antibodies represents a novel therapeutic approach to this ever-expanding medical problem.
Immunome’s core N-huMAb technology is uniquely suited to address this ever-increasing medical problem and we are harnessing this technology to develop novel therapies for infections which currently have no treatment options.

Clostridium difficile Program

Immunome’s initial development program targets Clostridium difficile infections.  C. difficile is the most common healthcare-associated infection and the most serious antibiotic-associated infection of the colon. In the past 10 years, the incidence and mortality of C. difficile infection have increased 3X and 18X, respectively due to the emergence of a strain that produces large amounts of the toxins that drive pathology.  Therapeutics for C. difficile infection represent a billion dollar opportunity in the United States alone.

Immunome has isolated the only and most potent single antibody that can protect from a lethal exposure to the  epidemic/hypervirulent strains of C. difficile toxins.