Oragenics Selects New Lantibiotic for Further Development in Clostridium difficile Infections

TAMPA, Fla.-- Oragenics (NYSE:MKT – OGEN.BC), a leader in the development of new antibiotics against infectious disease and developing effective treatments for oral mucositis, today announced selection of a second generation lantibiotic, OG716, for treatment of Clostridium difficile and plans to begin Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies.

OG716, a new, orally-active homolog, has exhibited positive results in an animal model for potential treatment of Clostridium difficile. Generated from Oragenics’ Mutacin 1140 (MU1140) platform, this new lantibiotic showed promising efficacy in reducing clinically relevant C. difficile infections as measured by increased animal survival and decreased relapse as well as reduced production of C. difficile spores when compared to a vancomycin positive control.

Through its Exclusive Channel Collaboration agreement (ECC) with Intrexon Corporation (NYSE: XON), ongoing research and development activities are focused on the identification of active lantibiotic homologs with favorable efficacy, safety and drug delivery profiles that can be moved forward in a timely, cost efficient and expeditious manner. Future work will include evaluation of a large lantibiotic library against a variety of infections including those related to methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).

Dr. Alan Joslyn, Chief Executive Officer and President of Oragenics, said, “We are excited about the selection of a new orally-active lead lantibiotic candidate in OG716. As we move forward with pre-clinical studies and plans to file an IND in 2017, we are optimistic OG716 will ultimately become available for treatment of C. difficile infections. This is a further demonstration of successful collaborative efforts with Intrexon as we jointly develop this new class of antibiotics and build on our relationship in the field of lantibiotics and infectious disease control. We will continue to study former lead candidate, OG253, and similar analogs in other infectious disease models.”

Philip Gioia, Chief Commercial Officer of Intrexon’s Health Sector, commented, “Lantibiotics such as OG716 have potential to play an important role in the fight against bacterial antibiotic resistance. We are excited that our collaboration under the ECC with Oragenics has led to the acceptance of an improved candidate for the treatment of C. difficile infections, and we look forward to continuing our joint research programs to identify new analogs to treat other multidrug resistant infections.”

About Oragenics, Inc.

We are focused on becoming the world leader in novel antibiotics against infectious disease and on developing effective treatments for oral mucositis. Oragenics, Inc. has established two exclusive worldwide channel collaborations with Intrexon Corporation, a synthetic biology company. The collaborations allow Oragenics access to Intrexon's proprietary technologies toward the goal of accelerating the development of much needed new antibiotics that can work against resistant strains of bacteria and the development of biotherapeutics for oral mucositis and other diseases and conditions of the oral cavity, throat, and esophagus.

For more information about Oragenics, www.oragenics.com

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Oragenics
Corporate Contact:
Michael Sullivan, 813-286-7900
Chief Financial Officer
msullivan@oragenics.com
or
Investor/Media Contact:
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David Burke, 646-536-7009
dburke@theruthgroup.com

Source: Oragenics, Inc.