VIDEO: Patients ‘might fall through the cracks’ between FMT, live microbiota therapies
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In a Healio video exclusive, Edward V. Loftus Jr., MD, highlighted benefits of newly available live biotherapeutics for Clostridioides difficile infection but noted concern for patients who don’t qualify and “might fall through the cracks.”
In the arms race against C. difficile, clinicians have turned to fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to restore an infected patient’s microbiome following antibiotics to break the cycle of recurrence. However, this status quo of FMT was recently shaken by FDA approvals for two live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) — Rebyota (fecal microbiota, live-jslm, Ferring Pharmaceuticals) and Vowst (fecal microbiota spores, live-brpk, Nestlé Health Science/Seres Therapeutics) — similarly intended to replenish healthy gut microbiota.
In the October issue of Healio Gastroenterology, Healio sat down with experts across the field to explore this shift in C. difficile treatment and how LBPs in the pipeline might change the paradigm pioneered by FMT. However — as Jessica R. Allegretti, MD, MPH, put it — “the story on traditional FMT is not over yet.”
“[The cover story] raises the issue, now that we have these two live biotherapeutic products, what is going to happen to FMT itself – is it going to go away?” Loftus, the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Professor of Gastroenterology at the Mayo Clinic told Healio. “A couple of the interviewees raised concerns about how patients might fall through the cracks if still FMT isn’t available.”
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