Phico Therapeutics - successful fundraising
Phico Therapeutics Ltd, an early stage company developing novel antibiotics, has recently closed a further financing round raising almost £700,000 from business angels including Cambridge Capital Group, Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION) and institutional investor Providence Investment Company Ltd.
Phico Therapeutics, founded by Dr Heather Fairhead, is developing a completely new approach to antibiotics. The technology, known as SASPjectTM, is based on a unique protein called SASP that targets and inactivates bacterial DNA. Modified bacterial viruses are used to target only specific harmful bacteria, and act like a hypodermic syringe to inject the SASP gene into target bacteria where the lethal protein is produced. The company believes that the technology can be used to target almost any individual bacterial species, with its first targets being methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile.
MRSA can cause serious and sometimes lethal infections including skin and wound infections, pneumonia and bacteraemia and is often resistant to many antibiotics. Phico will shortly begin producing its first product ready for use in human clinical trials. This product will eliminate the MRSA bacteria which often live on the skin and in the nose of healthy humans, thereby reducing the number of MRSA infections. Phico is concurrently developing an anti-MRSA treatment for intravenous use.
C. difficile is the major cause of infectious diarrhoea in hospitalised patients, and serious cases can require removal of the colon or may even result in death. C. difficile-associated diarrhoea can be very difficult to treat, with up to 1 in 5 cases relapsing following a course of conventional antibiotics. In fact some conventional antibiotics can aggravate this infection since they are indiscriminate and target the natural gut flora leaving a niche for C. difficile to grow. A very important and unique aspect of Phico's technology is that it can be used to target only the harmful C. difficile bacteria in the gut, leaving the normal flora unharmed. Development of Phico's oral treatment is progressing well.
This funding has enabled Phico to expand its workforce to 10, including 9 post-docs, and to take on more office space at the Babraham Research Campus.
Dr Heather Fairhead, founder and CEO of Phico Therapeutics commented "I am delighted to welcome Phico's new investors and to thank existing investors for their continued support. I look forward to the company making significant progress over the next year with the help of this funding".