Yet another string to Destiny's bow

Destiny Pharma have always had a microbiome tilt with their most advanced product, topical XF-73, being developed for the prevention of post-operative infections. But now, with a new collaboration and grant award for the SPOR-COV program, they have taken this even further to encompass the two hot-button issues in anti-infectives: the microbiome and coronavirus infections.

Now Destiny’s discovery efforts and pipeline have been expanded with the SPOR-COV collaboration and grant award with SporeGen and the University of Liverpool. This allows them to investigate (another) preventative effect of, in this case, a nasally delivered Bacillus formulation developed by SporeGen to stimulate the innate immunity against coronavirus.

This positive development plays to Destiny’s strengths in topical (nasal) administration, preventative indications, as well as the cost-effective management of its earlier-stage pipeline which we described in our recent initiation note. The development of SporeGen’s technology as a preventative therapy for COVID-19 has many advantages over traditional vaccines.

There are no changes to our model arising from the announcement of the SPOR-COV early-stage pipeline development. We retain our valuation of Destiny Pharma at £86.3m, or 197p per share.