Mer­ck en­lists 4D Phar­ma's mi­cro­bio­me plat­form in a bid to build a new class of vac­cines

Mer­ck has signed a re­search deal with 4D Phar­ma to use its Mi­croRX plat­form to turn liv­ing bac­te­ria in­to vac­cines.

The col­lab­o­ra­tion comes in the nascent field of “live bio­ther­a­peu­tics” – a term the FDA us­es to de­scribe liv­ing or­gan­isms, gen­er­al­ly bac­te­ria, used as med­i­cine. 4D Phar­ma, a small biotech based in Leeds, UK, builds its LBP by ex­tract­ing bac­te­ria from a healthy donor and putting it in a cap­sule pa­tients swal­low.

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