EnteroBiotix has partnered with Imperial College London for microbiome development in patients suffering from blood cancer, as well as accelerate systematic research in the new science of the microbiome.
The Glasgow-based microbiome therapeutics company will help manage an investigator-initiated trial to evaluate how its EBX-102 impacts on outcomes of bone marrow transplant patients with blood cancer.
This trial forms part of the Microbiota Transplant Prior to Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation (MAST) study, run across six of the UK’s leading blood cancer centres - including, along with Imperial, UCLH, The Royal Marsden, King’s College London, Leeds Teaching Hospitals and University Hospitals Birmingham.
Its lead product, EBX-102, contains diverse ecosystems of microbiota obtained from healthy donors, offering a compositionally consistent drug product with commercial attributes.
The Medical Research Council-funded trial will build on Imperial’s pilot study in the same patient population, which demonstrated preliminary signals trending towards intestinal microbiota transplantation (IMT), reducing complications and improving survival.
Imperial aims to increase exploration into the efficacy of this approach for a range of diseases, as well as to strengthen the route to commercialisation through systematic research.
Professor Julian Marchesi of Imperial College London's department of metabolism, digestion and reproduction, leading the research, said: “Patients with blood cancers are a group whose gut microbiome is particularly under attack - they often receive strong chemotherapy, which has side effects of mouth ulcers and gut inflammation.
“Their nutrition might be poor, they receive frequent antibiotics because of their high rate of infections, and many of them end up colonised with antibiotic-resistant bacteria - the latter point in particular can be a problem when patients need a very demanding treatment, like bone marrow transplantation.
“So, we are very excited and pleased to be partnering with EnteroBiotix to use their product to manipulate the gut microbiome in these patients.”
Dr James McIlroy, founder and chief executive of EnteroBiotix, stated: “Most of the studies published so far show the same thing – that transferring microorganisms from healthy to sick people can contribute to improving health outcomes.
“EnteroBiotix is developing a safer and more scalable approach to IMT that is compositionally consistent and is supported by a strong intellectual property position.
“Partnering with Imperial allows us to explore different research opportunities and takes us closer to fulfilling our vision to develop products that benefit patients.”
Further research will be supported by EnteroBiotix’s manufacturing facility, that was recently granted a manufacturer’s licence for investigational medicinal products by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to manufacture microbiome product candidates for clinical trials.
Established in 2017, EnteroBiotix operates research laboratories and pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in Glasgow and Aberdeen.
The company has raised more than £20m from investors to date, including ThairmBio, Kineticos Ventures and Scottish Enterprise.
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