An article in the online version of the world-renowned journal Science drew my attention back to an announcement earlier this week from London-listed PureTech plc (LON:PRTC).
The article first: in it researchers postulated that the gut microbiome could determine just how patients respond to the new class of cancer drugs that use the body’s own immune system to fight the disease.
At this point it is worth cautioning that the data was generated using mice rather than people (as is information from a lot of pre-clinical investigations). In other words the information generated isn’t foolproof.
Licence deal
However it may be indicative and this brings us back to PureTech.
On Tuesday PureTech said affiliate Vedanta Biosciences had in-licensed microbiome-derived cancer immunotherapies based on live biotherapeutics.
This is an early-stage endeavour; but it shows that Vedanta and PureTech have their eye on what’s happening in this emerging area of science.
For the uninitiated, the human microbiome is found in the gut and on the skin and consists of 10,000 microbial species and some 8mln protein encoding genes.
What we are beginning to learn is this eco-system, a microbial genome if you will, affects immunity, cognitive heath and the metabolism.
UK pair lead the field
At the forefront of developments in the UK is AIM-listed OptiBiotix (LON:OPTI), although it is pioneering products that aid weight loss, diabetes and lower cholesterol. It isn’t involved in cancer research.
Its offshoot, Skinbiotherapeutics (LON:SBTX) has turned its attention to the microbial life-forms on the body’s biggest organ, piggybacking on the work of Dr Cath O’Neill.
Both companies are know they are in fertile territory, have products near to commercialisation and currently face little or no real competition in their field.
Given the uptick in interest the space will become a little more crowded over the next few years, particularly with the proliferation of articles in journals such as Science - backed by real world-class research.