Microbiome company BiomX Ltd said on Monday that it has entered into an agreement to license a new set of bacterial targets for the development and commercialisation of phage therapies for the treatment of orphan liver disease Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) from JSR Corporation, Japan.

PSC is reportedly a rare progressive disease of the liver, characterised by inflammation and damage to hepatic bile ducts, leading to fibrosis and ultimately liver failure, cirrhosis and an increased risk of cancer.

Utilising its advanced discovery and development capabilities in phage therapy, the company discovered phage that eradicate the pathogenic strains and is developing a customised phage cocktail as a therapeutic for PSC.

According to the company, Dr Takanori Kanai, professor of Department of Internal Medicine Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Keio University School of Medicine and his research team, discovered the PSC specific strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) that disrupt the epithelial barrier in the microbiome of patients.

The company added the presence of those strains triggers additional bacterial translocation and liver inflammatory responses. The results of this study were recently published in Nature Microbiology.