| The nose is full of germs, and when patients go to the hospital for some surgeries it provides a path for bacteria to enter the body. This can lead to illnesses ranging from mild skin conditions to life-threatening infections of the heart valves, lungs and blood stream. Destiny Pharma, a biotechnology company founded almost three decades ago, had been working on a nasal gel to prevent infections caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria from occurring.
The method is to wipe a blob of the gel — about a third of the amount of toothpaste you would use to brush your teeth in the morning — inside a patient’s nostrils, pressing the sides together so the gel is distributed evenly. It’s applied four times in the 24 hours before surgery, then once right afterwards. Results from a mid-stage study have been positive.
But the company went into administration last year, and consequently the fate of the nasal gel known as XF-73 is in limbo. “We have not failed through lack of the fact that the drug works,” Bill Love, Destiny Pharma’s founder, tells me. “Ultimately nobody was willing to fund” the late-stage trial that could have paved the way for regulatory approval, he adds. The World Health Organization currently suggests using the Mupirocin nasal ointment for some patients preparing to undergo surgery. It’s typically applied to the nose twice a day for five days ahead of the procedure and can be used in combination with an antiseptic body wash. The problem is that bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics such as Mupirocin. Love explains that one of the ways bacteria protect themselves from antibiotics is to “plump together” and exude a “jelly matrix” — called a biofilm. Antibiotics aren’t able to penetrate that biofilm, so when the treatment is cleared from the body the bacteria can cause a reinfection. What Destiny Pharma discovered was that its nasal gel can penetrate the biofilm and kill the bacteria within. “And that’s a really great additional feature,” Love says. When a company goes bankrupt or into administration, the worst-case scenario for an asset-in-development is that it “goes into the trash bin of history,” says Henry Skinner, CEO of the AMR Action Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in antimicrobial therapeutics. Another option is that it “gets sold for pennies — if there’s a buyer for it.” It's unclear what will happen to Destiny Pharma’s nasal gel, but Love says administrators are continuing in advanced negotiations with several parties interested in buying the asset. In the meantime, antimicrobial resistance continues to be a concern. “Anything we can do to prevent an infection is the ideal treatment,” Skinner says. — Lisa Pham | 
