Pharmaceutical partnership looking to develop anti-inflammatory drugs with clostridia bacteria targeting large intestine. 

With funding from Innovative UK, Porton Biopharma, CHAIN Biotech and Scitech are looking to develop drugs that target the gut with spores directly extracted from anaerobic bacteria, called clostridia. The spores are resistant to acid and therefore able to pass through the digestive tract undamaged: “Clostridia naturally occur in the colon so are being used as the delivery agent, once they get through the stomach and into the lower intestine where it is anaerobic, they would naturally germinate and release the biotherapeutic,” Phil Luton, marketing manager at Porton Biopharma told in-Pharmatechnologist.

The drugs will be used to deliver therapeutics to the large intestine for inflammatory diseases such as Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease. Clostridial-based medicines are currently not being manufactured by any company for therapeutic use, CHAIN senior scientist David Kirk told in-pharmatechnologist.com. Funding details of the partnership have yet to be disclosed.