Clinical-stage biotechnology company Destiny Pharma plc (JPJ: DEST) announced on Wednesday that it has initiated a research project to explore the potential of its XF-73 drug to treat Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.

Supported by the U.S. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, this study will assess the effectiveness of XF-73 against MRSA strains collected from CF patients in the United States.

Destiny Pharma is collaborating with the CF Foundation National Resource Center for Microbiology at Seattle Children's Hospital, providing XF-73 for tests against 33 MRSA isolates from CF patients. The research will also evaluate how mucus, which protects MRSA from traditional antibiotics, impacts the drug's efficacy.

This initiative follows recent studies showing XF-73's superior activity against MRSA compared to mupirocin in skin infection models and its effectiveness against 840 MRSA clinical isolates globally. Destiny Pharma's XF-73 Nasal gel and NTCD-M3, a microbiome-based treatment for preventing C. difficile infection recurrence, are key assets in its drug development pipeline.