By Karen Young

Inhibitex Inc. entered into an estimated $23 million research and commercial partnership with Wyeth Lederle Vaccines for the development of human vaccines targeting Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, infections that escalate health care costs by extending hospital stays.

Inhibitex granted Wyeth Lederle an exclusive global license to its MSCRAMM protein technology for use in human vaccines. In return, the company gets up-front, milestone and research and development payments, as well as royalties on any approved product. Wyeth Lederle, a unit of Madison, N.J.-based American Home Products Corp., will be developing the vaccine to prevent such infections.

¿We got a significant up-front payment,¿ said William Johnston, president and CEO of Alpharetta, Ga.-based Inhibitex. He declined to elaborate on financial specifics.

¿The development effort is being driven by Wyeth; we¿re really supporting their development effort,¿ said Johnston, noting during the early years the company will have support for additional staff, although the portion of the $23 million going for staffing is modest.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that hospital infections are responsible for 8 million incremental days of in-hospital patient care at a cost of $4 billion annually, according to Inhibitex.

Johnston said the discovery that is the core of Inhibitex¿s technology is a series of genes in bacteria that code for the expression of surface proteins, which allow the bacteria to attach to the human tissue. This attachment is the mechanism for the initiation of infection, and antibodies against the MSCRAMM (or microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules) surface proteins block the initiation event and also allow the organisms to be cleared by the immune system.

Separately, Inhibitex already is in the clinic in a Phase II trial at Duke University Medical Center with immune globulin intravenous, a therapeutic product for the treatment of S. aureus infections.

¿We anticipate that we will also enter the clinic with another product during the first half of next year,¿ said Johnston, noting that it involves a different application of the platform.

¿For our therapeutic products, we have not entered into partnerships at this point in time, because we see a very high value in our antibody-based products, and we anticipate that we want to be a component of the marketing and sales of the other products we have under development,¿ Johnston said.

The privately held company was co-founded in 1994 by Magnus Hook, a native of Sweden, and Joseph Patti, now vice president of preclinical development, chief scientific officer and member of the board. Hook is on the board of directors and the scientific advisory board. However, the company was used only for the purpose of filing patents until 1998, when it became a developmental company. Johnston was the company¿s first employee when he came on board in February of that year.

Inhibitex has a 15,000-square-foot laboratory, pilot plant and administrative facility in Alpharetta.