Oragenics, Inc. has entered its Exclusive Channel Collaboration (ECC) with Intrexon Corporation, a synthetic biology company, which produced an exponential increase in the fermentation titer of the target compound MU1140 and the discovery of a promising new purification process for this product. This demonstrates significant progress toward the commercial production of its lead lantibiotic, MU1140, and delivers an important step in validating the lantibiotics platform targeting infectious diseases.

Oragenics and Intrexon have been working together through the ECC to produce a pipeline of new lantibiotics that have been shown to be active against essentially all Gram-positive pathogens, including vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), Clostridium difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), as well as multi-drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

"The ability to manufacture MU1140 by fermentation was originally thought not to be commercially feasible due to low titers and difficulties in purification. The Oragenics-Intrexon ECC clearly shows that the application of specific expertise in these areas represents a breakthrough by developing a potentially viable commercial process for these important anti-infective agents," stated Dr John N Bonfiglio, chief executive officer of Oragenics. In addition to the optimization of fermentation and purification strategies, Oragenics and Intrexon are working to leverage Intrexon’s genetic and cell engineering expertise to produce analogs of MU1140 and a pipeline of new lantibiotics. He further added, “We believe the newly developed process will provide for the first time, the necessary quantities of MU1140 to complete critical development activities.”

Oragenics, Inc. is focused on becoming the world leader in novel antibiotics against infectious disease and probiotics for oral health for humans and pets.