UK Biotech Receives Millions to Advance Antibacterial Therapy to Clinical Trials

Phico Therapeutics, a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, UK, has been awarded up to $18.2 million in grant funding from the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacterial Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) partnership to advance its lead antibacterial therapy.

SASPject PT3.9 is Phico’s lead product that has been developed for the intravenous treatment of hospital infections due to the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The funding from CARB-X will be used to progress the product through clinical trials, with $5.3 million of the funding available immediately and the rest ($12.9 million) being made available once key project milestones are met.

“To receive funding from CARB-X is important validation for our SASPject technology platform and its potential in fighting bacterial resistance,” said Heather Fairhead, Phico founder and CEO, in an April 19, 2021 press release. “It has been awarded at the end of a thorough due diligence process which reinforces the credibility of the company and our team—I am delighted to now look forward to progressing our lead product to clinical trials and developing a product pipeline that will advance the science of antibacterial therapy and in time, save millions of lives around the world.”

“Phico’s innovative approach delivers the antibiotic effect of SASPs by using engineered bacteriophages to precisely target P. aeruginosa infections in the lungs,” added Erin Duffy, R&D chief of CARB-X, in the press release. “This approach has the potential to target bacteria without damaging other cells, and without contributing to the rise of resistance. If successful, this new intravenous drug could transform the way patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia are treated in hospitals, and save lives.”

Source: Phico