Calla Lily joins US$50m antibiotics programme

Calla Lily Clinical Care has joined a US$50m antibiotics programme to assess vaginal delivery of UTI treatments through its Callavid platform.

The women’s health medical technology company will evaluate whether antibiotics can be delivered directly through the vaginal wall to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs).

The project will use Callavid, the company’s intravaginal drug delivery platform, aiming to deliver treatment to the site of infection while limiting systemic exposure.

Calla Lily has been selected for Wellcome Leap’s Focused Antibiotics programme, which is exploring ways to reformulate existing antibiotics so they reach infections while sparing the gut microbiome without loss of efficacy.

Dr Serena de Gelidi, Principal Investigator and R&D Manager, Calla Lily Clinical Care

The programme is backed by US$50m and aims to investigate technologies that could reduce the unintended effects of antibiotic treatment.

UTIs are among the most common bacterial infections in women. According to the source material, women are prescribed almost 40 per cent more antibiotics than men between the ages of 16 and 54.

Calla Lily will assess whether Callavid can deliver antibiotics through the vaginal wall while bypassing gastrointestinal transit and first-pass metabolism.

The company expects the approach could keep systemic exposure below 5 per cent.

There is currently no first-line UTI antibiotic available in a mass-manufactured vaginal formulation, according to Calla Lily.

The company said a successful project could contribute to the wider programme’s goal of reducing antibiotic-driven resistant infections by up to 40 per cent a year.

Callavid has a patented, leak-free, tampon-like design intended to deliver medicines and hormones through the vagina.

The platform is already being assessed in the NIHR-funded FREEDOM trial, which is studying vaginal progesterone delivery using Callavid.

That study began in April 2026 and is examining safety, user acceptability and drug absorption. According to the company, it has passed its safety stopping rule and 90 per cent of patients have completed their first round of dosing.

Dr Lara Zibners, co-founder and chair of Calla Lily Clinical Care, said: “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 chief executive 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.”

The project will be led by Dr Serena de Gelidi, principal investigator and R&D manager at Calla Lily Clinical Care.

She will be supported by Professor Andrew Lewis, principal scientist at the company and an international authority on drug-eluting systems, with 58 patents and more than 260 peer-reviewed publications.