Capsules packed with bacteria that soak up stomach gases could ease the misery of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The treatment works by mopping up hydrogen sulphide, the ‘rotten egg gas’ that is thought to be one of the underlying causes of IBS.
As many as one in five Britons has this chronic gut disorder that can cause stomach cramps, bloating, diarrhoea and constipation.
Research has shown that people with IBS have different bugs in their guts compared to healthy people. The capsules, called Blautix, aim to redress the balance. Made by UK biotech 4D pharma, they contain Blautia hydrogenotrophica, a bacterium that takes up hydrogen from the intestines to use as energy to keep it alive.
4D Pharma plc (LON:DDDD) is a world leader in the development of live biotherapeutics, a novel and emerging class of drugs, defined by the FDA as biological products that contain a live organism, such as a bacteria, that is applicable to the prevention, treatment or cure of a disease.
