INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Right now the world is at war
But this is no ordinary war
It a fight with an organism so small we can only detect it through use of a microscope — and if we don''t stop it, it could kill millions
of us in the next several decades
No, I&m not talking about COVID-19, though that organism is the one on everyone mind right now
I&m talking about antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
You see, more than 700,000 people died globally from bacterial infections last year —
35,000 of them in the United States If we do nothing, that number could grow to 10 million annually by 2050, according to a United Nations
report.
The problem? Antibiotic overuse at the doctor office or in livestock and farming practices
We used a lot of drugs over time to kill off all the bad bacteria — but it only killed off most, not all, of the bad bacteria
And, as the famous line from Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park goes, &life finds a way.
Enter Felix, a biotech startup in the latest Y
Combinator batch that thinks it has a novel approach to keeping bacterial infections at bay & viruses.
Phage killing bacteria in a petri
dish
It seems weird in a time of widespread concern over the corona virus to be looking at any virus in a good light but as co-founder
Robert McBride explains it, Felix key technology allows him to target his virus to specific sites on bacteria
This not only kills off the bad bacteria but can also halt its ability to evolve and once more become resistant.
But the idea to use a virus
to kill off bacteria is not necessarily new
Bacteriophages, or viruses that can &infect& bacteria, were first discovered by an English researcher in 1915 and commercialized phage
therapy began in the United States in the 1940 through Eli Lilly and Company.Right about then antibiotics came along and Western scientists
just never seemed to explore the therapy further.
However, with too few new solutions being offered and the standard drug model not working
effectively to combat the situation, McBride believes his company can put phage therapy back at the forefront.
Already Felix has tested its
solution on an initial group of 10 people to demonstrate its approach.
Felix researcher helping cystic fibrosis patient Ella Balasa through
phage therapy
We can develop therapies in less time and for less money than traditional antibiotics because we are targeting orphan
indications and we already know our therapy can work in humans,& McBride told TechCrunch
&We argue that our approach, which re-sensitizes bacteria to traditional antibiotics could be a first line therapy.
Felix plans to deploy
its treatment for bacterial infections in those suffering from cystic fibrosis first as these patients tend to require a near constant
stream of antibiotics to combat lung infections.
The next step will be to conduct a small clinical trial involving 30 people, then, as the
scientific research and development model tends to go, a larger human trial before seeking FDA approval
But McBride hopes his viral solution will prove itself out in time to help the coming onslaught of antibiotic resistance.
We know the
antibiotic resistant challenge is large now and is only going to get worse,& McBride said
&We have an elegant technological solution to this challenge and we know our treatment can work
We want to contribute to a future in which these infections do not kill more than 10 million people a year, a future we can get excited
