Destiny Pharma upbeat on infection prevention study

Destiny Pharma said in an update on Tuesday that its novel medicine for preventing life-threatening infections, ‘NTCD-M3’, had been shown to colonise the gut successfully in a C difficile infection (CDI) model study after the administration of fidaxomicin.

The AIM-traded firm said the results of the study had been peer-reviewed, and published in Microbiology Spectrum.

It said that in a phase-two clinical trial, NTCD-M3 was administered to patients shortly after antibiotics were used to treat the initial infection, resulting in a significant reduction in the recurrence of CDI from 30% in placebo to 5% in treated patients.

The patients had initially received either vancomycin or metronidazole to treat the toxic infection, before receiving NTCD-M3 treatment.

After the phase two clinical trial, fidaxomicin - a new antibiotic - was added to US clinical guidelines for treating CDI.

However, the study found that fidaxomicin and its active metabolite potentially inhibited colonisation by bacteria such as NTCD-M3 as they resided within the gut for longer.

The Microbiology Research Laboratory at the Edward Hines Jr Veterans Affairs Hospital in the US conducted the study, which monitored the colonisation of NTCD-M3 in an “established and highly translatable” CDI model following administration of fidaxomicin.

Destiny said the study concluded that NTCD-M3 was able to fully colonise the gut following the administration of fidaxomicin, indicating that it would be effective in patients receiving the antibiotic, as well as older antibiotics such as vancomycin and metronidazole.

“This publication, authored by leading US CDI expert Dr Stuart Johnson, is a landmark for NTCD-M3, as the use of fidaxomicin is growing and it has recently been recommended by guidelines as the first choice for treatment of CDI in the US,” said chief scientific officer Dr Bill Love.

“This demonstration of successful and complete colonisation of the gut by NTCD-M3 post‑fidaxomicin, confirms that this groundbreaking live biotherapeutics product can be used alongside all currently recommended antibiotics in the treatment of this serious hospital infection.”

At 1057 BST, shares in Destiny Pharma were up 2.35% at 30.19p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.