Could Merck's Antibody Become Poop Substitute For C.difficile Infection?

For those who would cringe at the thought of ingesting frozen feces of others to control a potentially deadly bacterial gut infection, a new alternative holds hope.

A phase 3 clinical trial of a monoclonal antibody developed by Merck & Co has shown to reduce risk of C.difficile infection reoccurrence by 10 percent. The antibody bezlotoxumab when used with antibiotics for 12 weeks was able to prevent reoccurrence of the bacterial infection. The infection reoccurred in 25 percent of the participants given placebo during the trial instead of bezlotoxumab.

"We have therapies to treat the initial episode, but this infection comes back frequently - there is a 25 percent risk of recurrence after the first time, and that rises to 40 percent or even 60 percent after the second infection," said Nick Kartsonis, associate vice president in clinical research at Merck, said according to Fox News.

The antibody has been licensed from Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories and Medarex. Merck revealed it has plans to obtain regulatory approval by the end of this year.

C.difficile infections are said to be increasing in number and are blamed for tens of thousands of deaths every year. The infection is said to occur when balance of healthy bacteria is disturbed. Treatment with antibiotics also affects healthy bacteria which leaves the gut vulnerable to reinfection.