SASPject™: a lethal delivery for bacteria that’s hard to resist

Phico Therapeutics is developing a unique antibiotic technology to address one the most urgent challenges facing medicine today – how to destroy multi-drug resistant bacteria, the so-called “superbugs”.

Phico’s patented platform utilises an antibacterial protein, SASP, to inactivate bacterial DNA and cause rapid destruction of target bacteria.

Known as SASPject™, the technology can be targeted to any selected bacteria with potential for administration as a topical nasal, oral or intravenous treatment. SASPject™ is a new class of antibiotic which could provide many advantages over conventional antibiotic classes.

In vitro testing shows that SASPject™ can destroy targeted bacteria more rapidly than any other licensed antibiotic whilst leaving the remaining bacterial flora unharmed: SASPject™ can destroy up to 99.9 % of target bacteria in 2 minutes. Equally important, laboratory studies have not revealed any mechanism by which bacteria can become resistant to SASP and its unique mode of action.

Early clinical development of first product, SASPject™ PT1.2 aimed at Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA, is backed by The Wellcome Trust. Other products in development target Clostridium difficile and Gram negative bacteria including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.