Clinical stage biotech Destiny Pharma has announced a collaboration with SporeGen to co-develop a preventative treatment for Covid-19.
Covid-19
The collaboration will see the two biotechs working together to co-develop SporeGen’s SPOR-COV product – a formulation of Bacillus bacteria that will be administered nasally as a spray.
The product is different to vaccines in that it utilises the body’s innate immune system to develop Covid-19 protection a few days after dosing. The companies aim to make the final product easy to manufacture at high volumes and state it could be stockpiled without the need for cold chain refrigeration due to the product’s stability.
The majority of the initial cost of the SPOR-COV is being funded by Innovate UK with a grant of £800,000.
Pre-clinical safety and efficacy studies are to take place at the University of Liverpool, headed by professor Aras Kadioglu who leads the Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunity group. Destiny Pharma and SporeGen plan to complete the pre-clinical programme be ready to enter the first human trials within 18 months.
Professor Simon Cutting, chief executive of SporeGen, said: “The SPOR-COV platform has already been shown to be effective against pandemic flu by targeting the innate immune system. As such, SPOR-COV potentially has value as a universal system for combatting other viral diseases such as Covid-19. If successful, we foresee a novel approach against Covid-19 and for future, similar pandemics. The SPOR-COV approach, unlike traditional vaccination, focuses on innate immunity and may not be impaired by new mutational variants. A further attribute of SPOR-COV is that it can be produced and stockpiled with ease and does not require a cold-chain. Prima facie our approach is simple and offers a potential new approach in the fight against one of the most serious diseases to afflict mankind".
Neil Clark, chief executive officer of Destiny Pharma, added: “We are excited to announce the collaboration with SporeGen to co-develop their SPOR-COV product to prevent Covid-19 infections and the concurrent award of significant grant funding from Innovate UK. We are also pleased to be working with Professor Kadioglu at the University of Liverpool who has world class virology expertise. Destiny Pharma is committed to building a novel pipeline targeted at preventing infections and is very pleased to now be working with partners on the SPOR-COV project alongside our existing in-house XF platform. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has highlighted powerfully the need for innovation in developing new treatments to prevent and manage both viral and bacterial infections and Destiny Pharma remains committed to developing cost-effective products that meet this medical need”.