- Micro cap Synthetic Biologics (NYSE:SYN) is up 10% premarket on increased volume in apparent response to a poster presentation at the 115th General Meeting of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) in New Orleans. The poster, titled, "Development of Therapeutic Agents that Protect the Colonic Microflora from Beta-Lactam Antibiotics for the Prevention of Clostridium difficile Infection" summarized the identification of a novel pipeline beta-lactamase called P2A which has the ability to protect the gut microbiome from the class of beta-lactam antibiotics called carbapenems.
- Beta-lactam antibiotics are commonly used to manage hospital infections. A major problem with their use is the disruption of the gut microbiome which allows the normally benign bacterium Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) to proliferate. This leads to severe diarrhea and potentially life-threatening inflammation of the colon. Over 1M C. difficile infections occur in the U.S. each year contributing to 30K deaths.
- The company's lead product candidate, SYN-004, is designed to protect the gut microbiome for the prevention of C. difficile infection. The poster summarized the results from Phase 1a and 1b studies that demonstrated the safety of SYN-004. A Phase 2a trial is in process and a Phase 2b proof-of-concept study will commence in Q3.