Back in the 1970’s a microbiologist named Milt Allison was studying interactions between feedstuffs and microbes at the National Animal Disease Laboratory in Ames, Iowa. Dr. Allison noticed that some sheep, after feeding off a high-oxalate containing plant (Halogeton glomeratus), were mysteriously dying from kidney failure. After further research, he realized that surviving sheep actually had developed a tolerance to oxalate as their microbiomes gradually adapted to a diet of this plant. Dr. Allison’s studies showed that the better tolerance was caused by an increased number of oxalate-degrading bacteria in the sheep gut. In further studies, Dr. Allison and his team of graduate students, isolated this oxalate-degrading bacterium. They found that the bacterium metabolizes oxalate converting it to formate, so they named it Oxalobacter formigenes. They also found that it occurs in the gastrointestinal tracts of many animals, including humans.

OxThera AB was founded in 2005 to explore the therapeutic potential that originated from this observation. Turning a naturally occurring bacteria into a healthcare product may sound easy, but in reality, it is not. To commercialize Oxabact®, we needed to develop a large-scale manufacturing process and a suitable delivery mechanism to transport uniform quantities of live bacteria to the site of action. The bacterium viability demands strict anaerobe conditions making biomanufacturing complex. We have developed a lyophilized formulation encapsulated in a special enteric coating that protects the bacteria from the stomach acid. The capsule remains intact while passing through the stomach, then releases cells at the target site.