Calla Lily Clinical Care has been selected for Wellcome Leap’s $50m Focused Antibiotics programme to develop targeted antibiotic delivery for urinary tract infections.

Targeted antibiotic delivery

Calla Lily Clinical Care has joined Wellcome Leap’s $50m Focused Antibiotics programme, which aims to develop ways of delivering antibiotics directly to infection sites while reducing unnecessary systemic exposure.

The London-based women’s health company will evaluate its Callavid intravaginal drug delivery platform as a potential way to deliver antibiotics through the vaginal wall for urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Wellcome Leap’s programme is focused on addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by adapting existing antibiotics so they can reach sites of infection while limiting exposure elsewhere in the body, including the gut microbiome.

UTIs are among the most common bacterial infections affecting women and are frequently treated with systemic antibiotics. Calla Lily said its approach is intended to investigate whether local delivery could reduce systemic exposure while maintaining antibiotic activity at the site of infection.

The company expects systemic exposure from the approach to be below 5%, although this will need to be established through research and clinical testing.

Callavid platform enters antibiotic research

Callavid is a leak-free, tampon-like drug delivery device designed to administer medicines through the vaginal wall.

The platform is already being investigated in an NIHR-funded clinical study evaluating intravaginal progesterone delivery. Calla Lily said the study has passed its safety stopping rule, with 90% of participants having completed their first round of dosing.

The study is assessing safety, acceptability and drug absorption, providing clinical experience with the delivery platform as the company investigates additional applications.

The new Wellcome Leap programme will apply the technology to antibiotic delivery for UTIs, representing a move into an area directly linked to antimicrobial resistance.

Calla Lily co-founder and chair Lara Zibners said the programme would allow the company to investigate whether local antibiotic delivery could address some of the effects associated with repeated systemic treatment.

“Women are disproportionately impacted by urinary tract infections, yet the consequences of that repeated systemic exposure have been largely overlooked,” Zibners said.

Tackling antibiotic resistance

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms change in ways that make medicines used to treat infections less effective. Antibiotic use creates selective pressure that can contribute to the development and spread of resistant bacteria.

Wellcome Leap’s Focused Antibiotics programme is seeking technologies that could change how existing antibiotics are delivered, with the aim of reducing unintended effects without compromising treatment efficacy.

Calla Lily said its project will investigate whether delivering antibiotics locally through the vaginal wall could provide sufficient drug exposure at the site of a UTI while reducing exposure to the wider body.

Thang Vo-Ta, co-founder and CEO of Calla Lily Clinical Care, said: “The Focused Antibiotics programme gives us the ideal partner to pursue one of the most consequential of those indications: treating the world’s most common bacterial infection in women while helping to address a global resistance crisis.”

The project will now investigate the potential of the Callavid platform for antibiotic delivery. Any benefits in reducing systemic exposure, improving treatment outcomes or limiting antibiotic resistance would need to be demonstrated through further research.