RCS - Destiny Pharma PLC - Exploration of XF drug potential for CF

Destiny PharmaAnnouncement

14/08/2024 08:15

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RNS Number : 2990A  Destiny Pharma PLC  14 August 2024

Destiny Pharma plc
("Destiny Pharma" or "the Company")

Destiny Pharma initiates research to explore XF drug potential for CF

 

Study to investigate the potential of XF-73 to treat MRSA infection in people
with cystic fibrosis

 

Brighton, United Kingdom - 14 August 2024 - Destiny Pharma (JPJ: DEST), a
clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development and
commercialisation of novel medicines to prevent and cure life threatening
infections, is pleased to announce the initiation of a research project to
test a potential treatment for people with cystic fibrosis. This programme,
supported in part by the U.S. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, will evaluate the
potency of XF platform drugs against a range of contemporary clinical isolates
of the bacterial superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
collected from the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis (CF) in the United
States.

 

Destiny Pharma is providing the Company's proprietary XF-73 drug to the CF
Foundation National Resource Center for Microbiology at the Seattle Children's
Hospital. The studies will involve:

1.    Measuring the potency of XF-73 against 33 contemporary MRSA isolates
from people with CF

2.    The impact of mucus, which protects MRSA from traditional antibiotic
treatment, on the activity of XF-73 will also be evaluated

 

CF is a progressive, genetic disease that affects the lungs, pancreas, and
other organs. There are nearly 40,000(1) children and adults living with CF in
the United States and an estimated 105,000 people have been diagnosed with CF
across 94 countries, with a further 35% estimated to be undiagnosed(2). People
with CF have a dysfunctional cell membrane protein, which causes the
overproduction of thick and sticky mucus. The mucus clogs airways in the lungs
and traps bacteria, leading to infection, respiratory failure, and other
complications. MRSA infections are much higher in people with CF than in the
general population. It is now found in more than 15% of people with the
disease. MRSA is resistant to multiple antibiotics, and lung infections caused
by the bacteria often become long-term.

 

The work investigating the utility of XF-73 against MRSA in CF follows on from
recent peer-reviewed publications demonstrating that XF-73 has superior
activity compared to mupirocin against MRSA isolates in a superficial skin
infection model(3); and that XF-73 has activity against 840 MRSA clinical
isolates from patient infections from around the world(4). Further data on the
ability of XF-73 to prevent bacterial invasion of the bloodstream by MRSA in
an in vivo burn wound model is to be presented at this year's Infection
Prevention Society Conference.
(https://www.destinypharma.com/2024/08/05/xf-73-prevents-bacterial-invasion-of-bloodstream/)

 

Dr Bill Love, Chief Scientific Officer of Destiny Pharma, said: "We are
excited to initiate this vital research and have high hopes of demonstrating
potentially useful activity of XF-73 given our recent publication of activity
against hundreds of MRSA strains(4) and activity against bacteria within
biofilms(5). The challenge here will be to explore our drug activity in the
presence of mucus which forms a major barrier, causing antibiotic treatment
failure."

 

References:

1.   Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 2024.
https://www.cff.org/intro-cf/about-cystic-fibrosis

2.   Guo et al., 2022. Worldwide rates of diagnosis and effective treatment
for cystic fibrosis. J Cyst Fibros. 21:456-462

3.    Zhang C, Li J, Lu R, Wang S, Fu Z, Yao Z., 2023. Efficacy of a Novel
Antibacterial Agent Exeporfinium Chloride, (XF-73), Against
Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Mouse Superficial Skin Infection Models.
Infect Drug Resist. 2023 Jul 25;16:4867-4879. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S417231. PMID:
37520450.

4.  Rhys-Williams W, Galvin HM, Love WG., 2023. Screening of the novel
antimicrobial drug, XF-73, against 2,527 Staphylococcus species clinical
isolates. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2023 Oct 11;13:1264456. doi:
10.3389/fcimb.2023.1264456. PMID: 37900306.

5.   Ooi N, Miller K, Randall C, Rhys-Williams W, Love W, Chopra I., 2010.
XF-70 and XF-73, novel antibacterial agents active against slow-growing and
non-dividing cultures of Staphylococcus aureus including biofilms. J
Antimicrob Chemother. 2010 Jan;65(1):72-8. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkp409. PMID:
19889790.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Destiny Pharma plc

Chris Tovey, CEO

Shaun Claydon, CFO

+44 (0)1273 704 440

pressoffice@destinypharma.com

 

FTI Consulting

Ben Atwell / Simon Conway

+44 (0) 203 727 1000

destinypharma@fticonsulting.com

 

 

About Destiny Pharma

Destiny Pharma is an innovative, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused
on the development and commercialisation of novel medicines that can prevent
life-threatening infections. The Company's drug development pipeline includes
two late-stage assets XF-73 Nasal gel, a proprietary drug targeting the
prevention of post-surgical staphylococcal hospital infections including MRSA
and NTCD-M3, a microbiome-based biotherapeutic for the prevention of C.
difficile infection (CDI) recurrence which is the leading cause of hospital
acquired infection in the US.

 

For further information on the company, please visit www.destinypharma.com
(http://www.destinypharma.com) .

 

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