London medical technology company Calla Lily Clinical Care has been selected to join Wellcome Leap’s $50 million Focused Antibiotics programme.
The US non-profit funding body launched the research programme to address global antimicrobial resistance by changing how antibiotics enter the human body. The project aims to reformulate existing drugs so they target infection sites directly without damaging gut bacteria or losing clinical effectiveness.
Urinary tract infections represent one of the most frequent bacterial infections among women worldwide. Women aged 16 to 54 receive almost 40 per cent more antibiotic prescriptions than men, leaving them disproportionately exposed to side effects from oral medications. Left unaddressed, antimicrobial resistance could contribute to more than eight million deaths globally each year by 2050.
Calla Lily will assess its proprietary Callavid drug delivery technology to deliver antibiotics directly via the vaginal wall. The route avoids the gastrointestinal tract and first-pass metabolism, which is expected to limit systemic exposure to under 5 per cent. Currently, no first-line UTI antibiotic exists in a mass-produced vaginal formulation.
The Callavid platform features a leak-free design similar to a tampon. It is currently being evaluated in the NIHR-funded FREEDOM clinical trial for vaginal progesterone delivery. Initiated in April 2026, the trial has passed its safety stopping rule, with 90 per cent of participants completing their initial dosing round.
Research under the new programme will be led by Dr Serena de Gelidi, Principal Investigator and R&D Manager at Calla Lily Clinical Care. She will work alongside Professor Andrew Lewis, Principal Scientist and specialist in drug-eluting systems.
Dr Lara Zibners, Co-founder and Chair of Calla Lily Clinical Care, added: “Women are disproportionately impacted by urinary tract infections, yet the consequences of that repeated systemic exposure have been largely overlooked. Organisations such as Wellcome Leap play a vital role in tackling major healthcare challenges through bold innovation. We are honoured to be part of the Focused Antibiotics programme and to explore the potential of Callavid in a foundational antibiotic application, demonstrating how women’s health innovations can deliver benefits far beyond fertility and reproductive care.”
Thang Vo-Ta, Co-founder and CEO of Calla Lily Clinical Care, said: “Being selected by Wellcome Leap, one of the world’s most ambitious health innovation funders, is a significant validation of what we are building at Calla Lily Clinical Care. Our ambition has always been for Callavid to become the defining platform for intravaginal drug delivery across a wide range of indications. The Focused Antibiotics programme gives us the ideal partner to pursue one of the most consequential of those indications: treating the world’s most common bacterial infection in women while helping to address a global resistance crisis that, left unchecked, could claim eight million lives annually by 2050. This marks a pivotal moment in demonstrating that when you solve for women, you solve for everyone.”
