Standard triple therapy for H. pylori now fails roughly 25% of the time as antibiotic resistance rises. Adding 200 mg twice daily of bovine lactoferrin to triple or quadruple therapy boosts eradication rates by 9-12 percentage points across multiple meta-analyses — with no added toxicity.
*Helicobacter pylori* infects roughly half of the global population and causes peptic ulcer disease, chronic gastritis, MALT lymphoma, and a substantial fraction of gastric adenocarcinomas. Treatment has become increasingly difficult: clarithromycin resistance now exceeds 30% in many regions, and standard triple therapy (PPI + clarithromycin + amoxicillin) achieves eradication in only 70–80% of patients.
Bovine lactoferrin has emerged as one of the few well-evidenced adjuncts that meaningfully improves eradication rates. The 2024 meta-analysis pooling 18 RCTs found adding 200 mg twice daily lactoferrin to standard regimens improved eradication by 9–12 percentage points (from ~75% to ~85%) and reduced treatment-related side effects by approximately 30%.
The mechanisms are particularly well-suited to *H. pylori* biology:
*H. pylori* requires iron for growth and uses host transferrin and hemoglobin as iron sources. Lactoferrin's exceptionally high iron affinity (Kd ≈ 10⁻²⁰ M) outcompetes *H. pylori* iron acquisition systems, slowing bacterial growth and enhancing antibiotic susceptibility.
Lactoferricin (the lactoferrin-derived peptide) has direct bactericidal activity against *H. pylori* in vitro at concentrations achievable in the stomach with oral supplementation.