Quotient, Phico In Nasal Delivery Pact

Quotient Clinical entered an agreement with Phico Therapeutics under which Quotient will undertake a RapidFACT program to optimize nasal delivery of Phico’s SASPject PT1.2, an antibiotic protein technology offering a new approach for the treatment of serious life-threatening bacterial infections, including MRSA.

RapidFACT will be used to screen alternative formulations designed to enhance nasal delivery, retention and efficacy of SASPject in intranasal S. aureus carriers. RapidFACT uses Quotient’s Translational Pharmaceutics platform to enable the rapid clinical screening and optimization of drug products.

Mark Egerton, MD of Quotient Clinical, said, “We are delighted to be working with Phico on the SASPject technology. RapidFACT has been used on a wide variety of oral products and this is the first example of its use on a nasal product, demonstrating RapidFACT’s broad utility. It is also pleasing that we have been able to integrate Quotient’s specialist microbiological services into this project. We are looking forward to delivering an optimized drug product for the next stages of development, and helping Phico to accelerate its novel approach into patient studies.”

Dr. Heather Fairhead, chief executive officer of Phico, said, “This will be the second trial we have conducted with Quotient Clinical and we are very pleased to be working with the Quotient team again. We expect to benefit once more from their professional and helpful approach and the use of RapidFACT for this application is an added bonus which should save Phico time and money at this critical stage of clinical development with SASPject PT1.2.”