Glox Therapeutics to share in £3 million cystic fibrosis funding
27 Jan 2025
Precision antibiotic therapies pioneer Glox Therapeutics has won a share of the Cystic Fibrosis Antimicrobial Resistance Syndicate’s £3 million Collaborative Discovery Programme.
The firm will receive £0.5 million from the programme which was itself set up with funds from medical research charity, LifeArc.
The Glox award is intended to accelerate development of its novel precision antibiotics, aimed at effective treatments to overcome antimicrobial-resistant lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis.
More than 162,000 people worldwide are estimated to be living with CF.
Glox Therapeutics’ proprietary protein bacteriocin engineering platform allows for the development of potent therapeutics that selectively eradicate drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. However, the antibiotics do not damage the human microbiome.
Dr Paula Sommer, head of research and partnerships at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, said for many CF sufferers, lung infections can lead to permanent lung damage.
She added that such infections were hard to treat due to AMR, so CF AMR Syndicate support for the projects would help develop urgently needed new antimicrobial treatments for CF.
Glox CEO and co-founder, Dr James Clark, stated: “There is a critical need for new and effective therapeutics to tackle the rise of antimicrobial-resistant lung infections in people with CF. We are grateful to LifeArc for the CDP funding, recognising the potential of Glox Therapeutics’ unique platform to address this urgent unmet need.”
The CDP is led by the CF AMR Syndicate, a cross-sector initiative driven by Medicines Discovery Catapult, LifeArc and Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Glox Therapeutics will be able to benefit from expert support and resources to speed development.
Strategy leader, infectious diseases, at the Medicines Discovery Catapult, Dr Beverley Isherwood (pictured), said that by supporting awardees through the early development phases to generate essential data packages, the CF AMR Syndicate’s CDP would position projects to attract onward funding and investment for further development.”
