Antibiotic Maker Trius Therapeutics Plans $86M IPO

NEW YORK (AP) — Trius Therapeutics, which is testing an experimental treatment for drug resistant infections, filed a registration for a planned initial public offering, and valued the potential IPO at $86.2 million.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the San Diego company plans to go public in 2010. Trius' primary drug candidate is called torezolid phosphate, and it is intended to treat complex skin infections like MRSA. MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a strain of staph infection that is resistant to typical broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Trius says it will start late-stage clinical testing in early 2010 and report results in 2011.

The company does not have any products on the market, and gets its revenue from grants from the National Institutes of Health, contract research and collaborations.

Torezolid phosphate can be given orally or by IV, and Trius says the drug can cure infections in less time than competing drugs. In June, Trius reported results from tests of three doses of the oral version of the drug. It said 96 percent of patients were cured after five to seven days of treatment. The most successful dose was the smallest, 200 mg. That dose cured 98 percent of infections, including all MRSA cases.