CHAIN partners with Miyarisan Pharmaceutical Ltd to accelerate the development of live biotherapeutics

Nottingham, UK – Miyarisan currently manufacture the probiotic bacterial strain MIYARI 588 for Asian and European markets, and bring extensive Clostridium bacterial spore manufacturing and formulation expertise, along with fermentation process development to the table. Combined with CHAIN’s engineering biology expertise, the two companies plan to repurpose a proven Clostridium probiotic species into a therapeutic, co-developing and manufacturing novel oral treatments targeting infection and cancer.

CHAIN Biotechnology‘s Clostridium Assisted Drug Delivery (CADD) platform has broad therapeutic applications which, with strategic investment and support from Miyarisan, can be used to develop drug candidates addressing a range of immune-oncological and infective targets.

CHAIN has also recently partnered with the University of Oxford, focusing on the development of a superior oral vaccine for Human Rotavirus (HRV). HRV is the leading cause of Childhood Diarrhoeal Diseases (CDDs) in low-income countries, affecting over 1.7 billion children every year and resulting in over 500,000 deaths. CHAIN’s oral vaccine being developed through the project aims to subvert the vaccine efficacy gap and combat vaccine inequality, utilising the investment and collaboration from Miyarisan to provide a route to scale-up and manufacture.

CHAIN CEO Dr. Matthew Duchars said:

“CHAIN is excited to have Miyarisan as a strategic investor. Miyarisan have a wealth of experience in commercial scale manufacturing which is highly synergistic with CHAIN’s experience in the genetic engineering of probiotic strains. By applying CHAIN’s unique CADD system to new disease targets and combining that with Miyarisan’s strength in manufacturing, the two companies can accelerate the development of medicines to help prevent and treat target diseases.”

Masayuki UCHIDA, President of Miyarisan Pharmaceutical added:

“Miyarisan Pharmaceutical’s is pleased to announce an investment in CHAIN Biotechnology. The two companies share a mutual interest in developing products that enhance the microbiome to improve health. CHAIN has combined innovative genetic engineering with microbiome technology using their “CADD” system, and has the potential to broaden microbiome technologies for use against specific disease targets. The combination of CHAIN’s high-quality genetic engineering science, coupled with Miyarisan’s experience in manufacture of microbiome enhancing live biotherapeutic products will create an opportunity to benefit patients, through the development of new and improved medicines.”