ROSEVILLE, Minn. & HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rebiotix Inc and Baylor College of Medicine and Texas’s Children’s Hospital announce a collaboration that has resulted in a novel analytical approach to assessing patient microbiomes that can differentiate between a dysbiotic, or “unhealthy,” and restored state. These findings, to be presented at Infectious Disease Week (IDWeek) by Qinglong Wu, Ph. D., have the potential to change the field’s understanding of how the microbial communities of patients change after receiving treatment.
“The microbiome community is enormously complex. Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital have collected vast amounts of data from patients participating in clinical trials; with these carefully assembled collections and those from the first-of-its-kind, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial run by Rebiotix, we were able to find a way to differentiate patient disease states based on the microbial signature,” says Wu. “This has the potential to be an entirely new way of translating complex microbiome data in the context of disease.”
Dr. Wu’s presentation, titled “Microbiome-Based Classifiers Accurately Differentiate Infectious Diarrhea from Function Gastrointestinal Disorders and Provide Population-Scale Confidence Measures of Fecal Microbiota Restoration in Recurrent C. Difficile Infection,” will be presented at the annual meeting on Saturday, October 6, at 11:30 AM PT, as part of the “Translating Microbiome Science into Practice” session.
“We are extremely pleased to be working with Dr. Wu and team as they blaze new trails in microbiome analyses,” says Dr. Ken Blount, Rebiotix Chief Scientific Officer. “Translating complex data sets like those from patients treated with our Microbiome Restoration Therapy is crucial to understanding how these novel therapies impact patients, and has broader implications for approaching additional indications. These findings are beneficial for the entire microbiome field.”
Infectious Disease Week 2018 will take place October 3-7 in San Francisco, California.
About Rebiotix Inc.
Rebiotix Inc, part of the Ferring Pharmaceuticals Group, is a late-stage clinical microbiome company focused on harnessing the power of the human microbiome to revolutionize the treatment of debilitating diseases. Rebiotix’s lead drug candidate, RBX2660, is in Phase 3 clinical development for the prevention of recurrent Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection and has been granted Fast Track status, Orphan Drug and Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA for its potential to prevent recurrent C. diff infection. Rebiotix’s clinical pipeline also features RBX7455, a lyophilized non-frozen, room-temperature stable oral capsule formulation, which was recently the subject of an investigator-sponsored Phase 1 trial for the prevention of recurrent C. diff infection. In addition, Rebiotix is targeting several other disease states with drug products built on its pioneering Microbiota Restoration Therapy™ platform. The MRT platform is a standardized, stabilized drug technology that is designed to rehabilitate the human microbiome by delivering a broad consortium of live microbes into a patient’s intestinal tract via a ready-to-use and easy-to-administer format. For more information on Rebiotix and its pipeline of human microbiome-directed therapies, visit www.rebiotix.com.
About Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group committed to helping people around the world build families and live better lives. Headquartered in Saint-Prex, Switzerland, Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and women’s health, and in specialty areas within gastroenterology and urology. Ferring has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 years. Today, over one third of the company’s research and development investment goes towards finding innovative and personalized healthcare solutions to help mothers and babies, from conception to birth. Founded in 1950, Ferring now employs approximately 6,500 people worldwide, has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries. Learn more at www.ferring.com.