EnBiotix and Elanco Enter Partnership to Develop Antibiotic-alternative Through Engineered Phage Technology

Health & Medicine
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June 21, 2016

Elanco Animal Health and EnBiotix, Inc. have entered an agreement to collaborate on the development of engineered phage technology as an alternative to traditional antibiotics. Their collaborative effort will focus on specific health targets in animals, but the research carries broader implications for human health. If successful, their engineered phage technology will present a different method of combating infectious biotic agents—a necessary innovation as resistance levels to traditional antibiotics becomes more prevalent.

Chairman and CEO of EnBiotix Jeffrey Wager welcomed the collaboration, stating that “Providing alternatives to current antibiotic treatments is a key health objective and we are excited to apply EnBiotix’s engineered phage technology platform in the animal health field with Elanco. We have been impressed by Elanco’s comprehensive antibiotic stewardship plan and they represent an ideal partner for EnBiotix in this field.”

The Partnership will Address Infectious Disease in Animals

Elanco is a bioveterinary division of Eli Lilly and Company that develops health products and solutions for companion and food animals, including medications, vaccines, and other innovations. EnBiotix is an engineered antibiotics company dedicated to developing antibiotics and other anti-infectious agents. They are deploying novel systems and synthetic biology technologies developed by Prof. James J. Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science Professor, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Together, the two will be teaming up to produce alternative antibiotic routes to combat infectious diseases in animals. EnBiotix will be bringing its intellectual property surrounding phage engineering to the partnership, while Elanco will bring funding and resources. Per the agreement, Elanco will have the right to license and sell any products that the collaboration yields.The boundaries of the partnership explicitly exclude all non-animal health applications based on the EnBiotix biotech platform. However, the research represents an important step toward a future where engineered phages offer an alternative or a replacement to the classes of antibiotics that are used in human health today. In addition to its work in animal health, EnBiotix has several engineered phages for human health applications in their pipeline. Notably, EnBiotix recently entered an additional agreement with Mayo Clinic to collaboratively develop the company’s first candidate for human applications: an engineered phage for combating Staphylococcus infections in prosthetic joints, which is expected to be ready for clinical trials in 2018-2019.

What is Engineered Phage Technology?

What exactly is engineered phage technology, and how does it work in an antibiotic capacity? To take down infectious bacteria, EnBiotix is harnessing the power of another infectious agent: viruses. “Phage” is another word for virus and EnBiotix is using a specific type of virus called bacteriophages, which selectively infect bacterial cells and are benign to human cells. After a bacteriophage infects its bacterial target, it hijacks the cellular machinery to replicate itself, eventually causing that cell to lyse, or burst open, thus killing it.Just like living cells, bacteriophages contain genetic material that directs their function. By altering the content of this genetic material, these viruses can be made to selectively kill certain species of bacteria, leaving the beneficial components of the microbiome intact. They can also be engineered to attack certain cellular systems that are not normally targeted by antibiotics and therefore have not been placed under selective pressures to adapt. In the face of rising antibiotic resistance levels (with the first incidence of a universally-resistant bacteria being recorded last month), these have made engineered phage technology an attractive and increasingly urgent option for replacing antibiotics.

CRISPR

T2 bacteriophage viruses (orange) attacking an Escherichia coli bacterium. © Lee D. Simon / Science Photo Library

A small number of engineered phages are already FDA and USDA approved to be used as food additives to reduce the amount of pathogenic bacteria, such as E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes, present in meat and produce that lead to the many thousands of incidents of foodborne disease in the U.S. every year. Development of engineered phages for applications in living organisms, including both livestock animals and humans, has been slower. However, in 2015 Elanco launched an aggressive antibiotic stewardship plan to accelerate antibiotic research and ensure that human and animal health stays apace of infectious disease. Elanco’s President Jeff Simmons believes that “Innovative research will be key to protecting both human and animal health while safeguarding antibiotics for future generations.” The collaboration between EnBiotix and Elanco holds promising for advancing the vision of engineered phage antibiotics and a much-needed solution as a long-awaited problem comes to fruition. EnBiotix recently announced the completion of a Series A financing, and established a new joint venture company in Brazil, EnBiotix (Brasil) Ltda in conjunction with WHIC.You can read more about Elanco’s comprehensive antibiotic stewardship plan here and find more information on EnBiotix’s engineered phage platform here.

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