News 1st August 2002

Phico Therapeutics - New investment supports development of anti-MRSA technology

Phico Therapeutics Ltd, a young company developing novel antibiotics, has recently closed its early stage financing round. The company raised £450,000 from business angels including some members of the Cambridge Capital Group, and institutional investors, Cambridge Research and Innovation Ltd (CRIL), Providence Investment Company Ltd and Emblem Technology Partners Ltd.

Phico Therapeutics was founded by Dr Heather Fairhead at the end of 2000 to develop a completely new approach to antibiotics. The company modifies viruses which specifically attack bacteria; these bacterial viruses are called bacteriophages. Essentially, the modified bacteriophages act as hypodermic syringes, injecting a gene into target bacteria which generates a lethal protein. The lethal protein acts to render the bacterial DNA useless.

The company believes that the technology could be used to target almost any bacterial species, but initially plans to target methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, sometimes referred to in the media as a superbug. S. aureus is most commonly associated with short term food poisoning, with healthy individuals normally recovering within 24-48 hours of ingestion: however it can cause much more serious and sometimes lethal infections including skin and wound infections, pneumonia and bacteremias. Methicillin resistant strains of S. aureus are not susceptible to penicillin type antibiotics and are often resistant to many other classes of antibiotics. The race is on to find new treatments which will work against this potentially lethal bacterium.

The company, which is based at the Babraham Bioincubator, was formed with support and seed funding from CRIL. CRIL is based in Cambridge and has been investing in early stage high technology companies such as Phico Therapeutics for 15 years. Lucy Block of CRIL commented "Phico is a typical example of the type of seed capital investment that CRIL can make, helping to take the work of one or two scientists and grow a company around it. We are pleased with the progress the company has made to date and look forward to the additional proof of principle work that this funding will pay for".

Dr Heather Fairhead founder of Phico Therapeutics commented "I am delighted to welcome Phico's new investors and I look forward to making significant scientific progress over the next year with the help of this funding".