Amphoraxe Life Sciences Inc. Information

Our mission is rapid development of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as alternatives to conventional small molecule antibiotics. As a Research and Development Biotechnology Company we are generating solutions against antimicrobial resistance, safeguarding human health and securing the food chain for a growing world population. Our current target is to translate AMPs for use in veterinary applications – specifically in poultry meat and egg production. Our long-term vision is to develop novel human therapeutics. Antimicrobial drugs based on small molecule antibiotic compounds have saved countless lives since the discovery of penicillin in 1928. However, these drugs have now lost or are losing effectiveness as microbes become resistant. Antimicrobial resistance threatens to kill 10 million people a year by 2050, and to slow or even reverse modern medical advances in surgery, organ transplantation, and cancer treatment. Antibiotics were routinely used in North American farms until recently, to keep animals healthy and protect human health by preventing food-borne illness outbreaks. The practice also had a positive effect on animal growth. In response to antimicrobial resistance, regulators in the US (2017) and Canada (2018) have restricted veterinary use of all medically important antimicrobials to prescription-only applications. These necessary changes have created an economic burden for farmers, who are looking for antibiotic replacements. Antimicrobial peptides are one potential alternative to conventional small molecule antibiotics. AMPs act faster than small molecule antimicrobials, and do not cause DNA damage. As a result, they do not induce resistance to the same degree as conventional antibiotics. Further, AMPs used in the agricultural sector would be broken down in farm animals' bodies and would not persist in the meat or eggs, nor in agricultural waste products.