Destiny Pharma reports positive data from US clinical trial of exeporfinium chloride against SA bacteria

UK-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Destiny Pharma has reported positive results from a US clinical trial of exeporfinium chloride to treat people with colonised nasal staphylococcus aureus (SA) bacteria.

Exeporfinium chloride (XF-73) is developed as a preventive anti-bacterial drug, which is a synthetic dicationic porphyrin derivative with antibacterial activity.

Sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health, the two-stage clinical trial was conducted at the NIAID Clinical Trials Unit at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and at Anaheim Clinical Trials in California, US.

The trial is intended to determine the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of intra-nasally administered exeporfinium chloride gels.

The Part I portion of the study has suggested the safety of the administration of exeporfinium chloride to eight volunteers, which later proceeded to the Part II portion of the study.

The Part II trial was designed as a double-blinded, placebo controlled study that tested two exeporfinium chloride concentration gels and two viscosities applied to the nostrils for five days.

Both of the dosages have exhibited a safe and tolerable profile with no drug detected in the bloodstream.

Destiny Pharma CEO Dr Bill Love said: "We are delighted with these results, which demonstrate that exeporfinium chloride is safe and well tolerated and has the potential to deliver the FDA / QIDP awarded US indication for the prevention post-surgical SA infection.

“The support from NIAID made this study possible and we plan to progress this important new drug into the next stage of development and thereon to market."

The anti-bacterial drug has demonstrated a rapid, anti-staphylococcal effect after being administrated for one day displaying comparable results against placebo in a sustained way.