Biotechnology company, Phico Therapeutics, has been awarded significant funding from Innovate UK to support the manufacturing development of its intravenous antibiotic, SASPject PT3.8.
British money
The funding, worth £1.4 million, will support the project, involving the development of a therapeutic targeted to Pseudomonas aeruginosa with the aim of tackling the genetic cause of antibiotic resistance. It will be undertaken in partnership with The Clinical Trial Company and GE Healthcare.
“Our goal is to advance the science of antibacterial therapy to help overcome the global problem of bacterial resistance,” said Dr Heather Fairhead, CEO at Phico. “This non-dilutive funding from Innovate UK is an important validation of our platform, and will enable us to take our lead product towards testing in humans.”
The SASPject PT3.8 is an antibacterial therapy for the systemic treatment of patients with serious Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) infections. These forms of infections have a high mortality rate and are very difficult to treat as a result of the bacteria’s intrinsic antibiotic resistance mechanisms — including an impermeable cell membrane and efflux pumps that can remove antibiotics entering the cell.
It is anticipated that clinical trials of the therapy will be expanded to include suspected cases of P. aeruginosa, which will increase the market opportunity of the product.
SASPject PT3.8 has been developed using Phico’s SASPject platform. This platform employs unique antibacterial small acid-soluble spore proteins (SASP) to target and deactivatebacterial DNA, stopping bacteria from metabolising or reproducing.
The funding will be used to improve the manufacturing yield of the product, including the manufacture of a 15 litre pre-GMP batch for formal pre-clinical testing and development of a quality management system for manufacturing at the company. The project partners will advise on practical manufacturing processes.
Total cost for the project is projected to be £2 million, extra funds will be provided by Phico’s shareholders.