Phi Therapeutics, Inc. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NIAMS

Description

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Acne is a nearly universal condition affecting of all people at some point in their lives In the US alone acne affects about million people and causes physical and psychological scars Acne is a $ billion market and each year there are million prescriptions to treat acne including million prescriptions for topical antibiotics alone Antibiotic treatment is frequently ineffective or has poor longterm outcomes Decades of treating acne with antibiotics has also led to more than of acne causing P acnes bacteria acquiring drug resistance which is a major public health concern As an alternative to antibiotic therapy we are developing a precise microbiome editing platform to treat acne and other skin disorders with topical treatments comprising probiotic microorganisms Our approach is to selectively replace the pathogenic acne causing P acnes with probiotic bacteria sourced from healthy skin restoring the balance of the microbiome to a healthy state Our live biotherapeutic product would have three characteristics First it would be inherently safe for use on human skin Second based on the efficacy of a similar approach in treating skin infections our product is expected to have superior longterm outcomes Third it would replace topical antibiotics that have caused an overwhelming rise in drug resistant skin bacteria and reduce the problem of antibiotic resistance The probiotic therapy developed as a result of this work can be applied to recalibrate the microbiota in other skin disorders of bacterial etiology such as rosacea and atopic dermatitis PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Acne is a nearly universal condition affecting of all people at some point in their lives Despite a strong unmet need for effective and safe acne drugs there has been very little innovation in this field Using a Precise Microbiome Editing platform Phi Therapeutics is developing a novel probiotic therapy that will have excellent longterm results and far fewer side effects than the current standard of care