Progress for Microbiotica with UC drug
Microbiotica has unveiled data on the mechanism of action of MB310, a clinical-stage drug candidate in development for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC).
MB310 has been developed as an oral capsule, dosed once daily, containing a defined consortium of eight live gut commensal bacterial strains. It is designed to deliver long-term remission to UC patients, without immunosuppression or unwanted side-effects.
The update was delivered at the Keystone Symposia ‘Human Microbiome: Diversity, Selection and Adaptation’ held 18-21 February in Banff, Canada, and at the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) meeting held February 19-22 in Berlin.
Tim Sharpington, CEO of Microbiotica, speaking on the release of its UC program, MB310, said: “It’s been well documented for some time that a disrupted microbiome can cause inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and that replacing it with a ‘more healthy’ microbiome can help relieve symptoms. What is less well understood is the how this happens, what mechanisms are at play?
“The data we’ve presented shows that the healthy bacteria within our product, MB310, interact with the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract in a number of distinct ways, promoting gut barrier healing as well as demonstrating anti-inflammatory properties. This offers the promise of long-term disease remission without side-effects and we’re now testing this in our first clinical trial COMPOSER-1 in ulcerative colitis patients.”
In addition, Microbiotica’s MB097 is also being tested in an international Phase Ib clinical study, in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), MSD’s anti-PD-1 therapy, in patients with cutaneous melanoma who have failed to respond to immunotherapies.
MB097 is a live biotherapeutic product (LBP) in development as an adjunct to immune-oncology treatments such as MSD’s (Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA) anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab).
Microbiotica presented the new data on the mechanism of action of MB097 at the American Association for Cancer Research AACR IO meeting held in Los Angeles, February 23-26.
Mat Robinson, Microbiotica’s senior VP of Research, said: “These data begin to identify the different mechanisms by which gut commensal bacteria drive immunotherapy response.”
