Cempra Inc.

Chapel Hill, NC United States

  (NASDAQ: CEMP)

Company Description

Cempra isn't afraid of a little staph, or pneumonia for that matter. The company is in the clinical stages of developing antibiotics that treat bacterial infectious diseases, especially ones that affect the skin and respiratory tract. One of its lead candidates, Taksta, is an oral treatment that is being tested against linezolid (sold by Pfizer as Zyvox), the only oral antibiotic currently FDA approved for the treatment of a drug-resistant form of staph known as MRSA. Its other main candidate, CEM-101, is being developed in IV and oral formulations for the treatment of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. Cempra completed an IPO in 2012.