Acea Biotech, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies against infectious diseases. We are an early stage small molecule drug discovery company.
There are urgent needs for new antifungal agents with potent antifungal properties and improved safety.

These needs arise from the following:
The incidence of fungal infections (e.g., candidiasis, aspergillosis, onychomycoses) is on the rise and currently available antifungals are of  limited pharmacokinetic utility or fungicidal capacity in their treatment.

The number of immuno-compromised patients continues to increase due to (1) the various treatments for cancer such as chemotherapy, (2) organ transplant patients, and (3) AIDs patients.  These patients need a drug whose mode of action is “fungicidal”, i.e. the drug kills the fungi.  Amphotericin B is the only fungicidal drug in use – Corifungin would be the second.

The fungi that cause vaginal yeast infections cannot be completely eliminated by existing drugs which cause many patients to have recurring problems/treatments.

For many years Amphotericin B and its lipid formulations have been the dominant therapies  for systemic aspergillosis and other fungal infections, but their clinical uses are limited by their nephrotoxicities, infusion-related toxicities, and high acquisition costs. Among the lipid formulations of Amphotericin B voriconazole is currently used as the drug of first choice. Nevertheless, voriconazole is not always effective or tolerated, so there is still a need to use other antifungal agents.

The antifungal triazoles are effective against many pathogenic fungi; however, hepatotoxicity, gastrointestinal intolerance, drug interactions, antifungal spectrum, and emergence of resistance limit their utilities. Flucytosine has activities against yeasts, such as Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans, but its use may be complicated by myelosuppression and gastrointestinal toxicity.

“Acea” [uh-see-uh] is Greek for “cure"