SciBac Awarded up to $3.76M by CARB-X to Develop Hybrid Microbes as a Drug for C. diff

  SAN FRANCISCO, CA - 07/31/2018 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

SciBac has been awarded up to $3.76 million in non-dilutive funding by CARB-X, a public-private partnership devoted to accelerating early medical R&D to combat the rising threat of antibiotic resistant Superbugs. This award supports development of SciBac’s novel biotherapeutic to treat and prevent Clostridium difficile infections (CDI). 

Superbugs, like C. diff, have created a $40 billion market and are poised to cause more deaths than cancer by 2050. For this reason, SciBac is creating alternatives to antibiotics, using rationally designed live biotherapeutic microbes for the treatment and prevention of antibiotic resistant diseases. 

“SciBac is essentially creating a new class of drug,” said Jeanette Mucha, CEO of SciBac. “The CARB-X award accelerates our development of bugs as better drugs. Our approach harnesses the microbiome to tackle antibiotic resistant disease, with targeted modes of action.”

This CARB-X grant supports the early stage development of SciBac’s SCB-102, an oral therapy consisting of hybrid microbes specifically designed to target CDI. Known as deadly diarrhea, CDI is on the CDC’s Antibiotic-Resistant Urgent Threat List. CDI causes more than 15,000 deaths in the US each year with current antibiotics failing 1 in 4 patients.

SciBac constructs novel therapeutic microbes using their wholly-owned patented technology platform, which combines selected genetic traits of any two microbes into one hybrid by directing a natural mechanism. This allows SciBac biotherapeutics to have multiple modes of action while bolstering the microbiome for faster recovery.

“The world urgently needs antibiotic alternatives, like those that SciBac is developing, as well as other life-saving products to treat and prevent deadly infections,” said Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X. “The human microbiome is providing exciting new approaches to the prevention and treatment of life-threatening infections.”

SciBac’s SCB-102 consists of three hybrid microbes that kill C. difficile, stop its colonization of the colon, neutralize its toxins, and prevent spore formation. The CARB-X award will advance its development in three stages, with the first providing full genetic characterization and extensive in vitro studies to determine dosing rationale, the second focusing on manufacturing and safety testing, and the third stage supporting a first-in-human clinical trial. 

About SciBac

SciBac creates rEvolutionary live biotherapeutics that treat and prevent antibiotic resistant disease, while fortifying the microbiome. Using their proprietary platform technology, SciBac mates beneficial microbes to create hybrid strains with traits meticulously selected to target disease through multiple modes of action. SciBac has an expanding pipeline that includes biotherapeutics for Clostridium difficile infections and chronic Pseudomonas in cystic fibrosis patients. For more information, visit www.scibac.com.

About CARB-X 

CARB-X is the world's largest public-private partnership devoted to supporting early development antibacterial R&D. Funded by ASPR/BARDA, Wellcome Trust, the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)’s Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with in-kind support from NIAID, CARB-X is investing more than $500 million from 2016-2021 to support the development of innovative therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, devices and other life-saving products. CARB-X supports research focused on high priority drug-resistant bacteria, especially Gram-negatives. CARB-X is headquartered at the Boston University School of Law. Other partners include RTI International, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, MassBio, and the California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI). www.carb-x.org.

This news release is supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number IDSEP160030 from ASPR/BARDA and by an award from Wellcome Trust. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Wellcome Trust, or other CARB-X funders. 

Media Contacts: 
CARB-X:
Jennifer Robinson carbxpr@bu.edu
M: +1.514.914.8974