Tackling Bacterial Vaginosis with Precision Biofilm Disruption
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) affects around 30% of women of childbearing age globally, making it the most common bacterial imbalance in this population. While some experience distressing symptoms, such as odour, discharge, and itching, BV poses serious risks to all carriers, including a doubled risk of preterm birth, a tenfold increase in miscarriage, and heightened susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections. Despite its prevalence, BV remains poorly managed and 70% of women treated with current antimicrobials relapse within nine months.
Founded in 2018, CC Bio is pioneering a new approach to BV treatment through endolysins – enzymes that target bacterial peptidoglycan with high specificity and potency. Using their proprietary discovery platform, Zeus, CC Bio identifies endolysins capable of disrupting the resilient biofilms formed by BV-associated bacteria such as Gardnerella spp. and Fannyhessea vaginae. These biofilms resist traditional antimicrobials, necessitating novel solutions.
In 2021, CC Bio received a transformative Proof of Concept award from NBIC, enabling a collaboration with researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). This partnership provided critical expertise in bacterial culture and biofilm testing, allowing CC Bio to evolve from an in silico company to a full-spectrum drug development enterprise.
Dr David Corcoran, CC Bio Co-Founder and COO said,
“We strongly believe that our work with NBIC has contributed to the progress that we have made with our Women’s Health programme. Before engaging with NBIC, we were essentially an in silico company, without any ability to screen our promising candidates. After the critical funding from NBIC in 2021, we evolved into a coherent drug development company, with our testing capacity augmented by a robust collaboration with expert partners in GCU. Without NBIC funding, it is highly uncertain whether we would have been able to achieve this progress and bring highly needed BV therapeutics to the cusp of the clinic”.
The NBIC award catalysed several milestones: a £613k Innovate UK grant, over £800k in seed funding, two patent filings, and a high-impact publication. In 2024, CC Bio was acquired by Precisio Biotix Therapeutics, and in 2025, a $1.5M Gates Foundation grant was awarded to advance BV candidates through preclinical development.
These therapeutics aim to prevent BV-related contributions to the UK’s 250,000 annual miscarriages and restore sexual confidence for symptomatic women. The CC Bio–GCU collaboration continues to thrive, exploring novel drug delivery systems and immunotherapeutic applications to revolutionise biofilm-related disease treatment.