Benzinga | Nov 16, 2020 06:36AM EST

BiomX Presents Preclinical Results of Phage Targeting Klebsiella pneumoniae for Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Presentation featured at The Liver Meeting(r) 2020, the AASLD Annual Meeting, details support for the design of phage therapy candidate BX003 -

NESS ZIONA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BiomX Inc. (NYSE:PHGE), a clinical stage company developing natural and engineered phage therapies targeting specific pathogenic bacteria, today announced that phages identified by BiomX with a broad host range were able to target and eradicate 89 percent of distinct gut-harbored Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated from samples obtained from patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The study included over 1,000 strains isolated from over 300 patients with (IBD) or (PSC). In addition, oral administration of selected phage demonstrated efficacy in reducing target bacterial load in an in vivo model.

"These results support the potential of a phage therapy approach for the treatment of both IBD and PSC, demonstrating the ability to identify and select phage with direct relevance to patients," commented Eran Elinav, M.D., Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, a scientific founder of BiomX and a scientific advisor. "Our analysis of these results has informed the design and broad host range of BX003, an orally delivered candidate phage therapy targeting Klebsiella pneumoniae for the treatment of both IBD and PSC."

The results will be featured in a poster presentation at The Liver Meeting(r) 2020, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) taking place Nov. 13-16, 2020. Presentation details are as follows:

Title: Broad Host Range Bacteriophage for Reduction of Klebsiella Pneumoniae as Potential Therapy in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) (Poster #1230)

Lead Author: Maya Kahan-Hanum, Ph.D., BiomX

Presentations will be available at the Company's website at https://www.biomx.com/publications-2/.