Microbiotica Presenting at Key Industry Events during Summer 2019

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Cambridge, UK, 20 June 2019 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics, is pleased to confirm upcoming conference attendance and during summer 2019. CEO Dr Mike Romanos, CSO Dr Trevor Lawley and Head of Bioinformatics Dr Simon Harris will be presenting on commercial and scientific advances and opportunities in the fast-moving microbiome space:

Cambridge Biotech Week, 24-28 June, Cambridge, UK

The Milner Therapeutics Symposium, 25 June 2019, Cambridge, UK

The Milner Therapeutics Symposium 2019 is focused on ‘building collaborations to transform therapies’ and will feature scientists from both academia and industry discussing their latest research and its potential to be applied in pharma and biotech towards new treatments. Parallel sessions will cover topics including oncology, antimicrobial resistance and the microbiome, and CNS therapeutics.

‘Antimicrobial Resistance and the Microbiome’ – plenary talk by Dr Trevor Lawley,
25 June, 15.30 – 15.45

Health Horizons Future Healthcare Forum, 26-27 June 2019, Cambridge, UK

Health Horizons will focus on the future of an increasingly personalised and interdisciplinary healthcare industry, with key themes including novel therapeutic approaches, digital health, and cardiometabolic disease.

‘Microbiome and the Merging of Food and Healthcare’ – panel discussion featuring Dr Trevor Lawley

26 June, 17.00 – 17.40

‘Leveraging the Microbiome for Precision Diagnosis’ talk by Dr Trevor Lawley

26 June, 17.40 – 17.55

Microbiome Movement – Drug Development Summit, 26-28 June, Boston, US

The Microbiome Movement – Drug Development Summit 2019 brings together researchers from the pharma, biotech and academic communities to discuss the causal role of the human microbiome in disease, and the development of new targeted treatments that demonstrate consistent clinical outcomes. Microbiotica is again a sponsor of this key event.

‘Microbiome Industry Leaders Panel Discussion’ – Dr Mike Romanos participating in and moderating discussion
27 June, 08.30 – 09.30

‘New Perspectives on Pharmaceutical & Biotech Partnerships in the Microbiome’ – panel discussion
featuring Dr Mike Romanos
28 June, 12.30 – 13.00

‘Applying Microbiotica’s platform to identify bacterial biomarkers and medicines’ – talk by Dr Simon Harris

27 June, 14.40

ON Helix, 09-10 July, Cambridge, UK

Translational research conference for the Life Sciences industry organised by One Nucleus, with a focus on how to turn early stage inventions and ideas into innovative health treatments.

‘Technology Track – Microbiome’ – talk by Dr Mike Romanos
10 July, 11.30 – 12.25

Microbiome Movement – Oncology Response Summit, 22-24 July, Boston, US

The inaugural Summit will focus on the harnessing and translation of the microbiome to improve identification of patient responders, optimise cancer therapeutic strategies and ultimately enhance clinical outcomes.

‘Applying Microbiotica’s Platform to Modulate Cancer Immunotherapy Response and Identify Bacterial Biomarkers and Medicines’ – talk by Dr Trevor Lawley
23 July, 15.00 – 15.30

For further information please contact:

Microbiotica
Rowena Gardner
rgardner@microbiotica.com
+44 1223 786063 / +44 7801 480569

Instinctif Partners (for media enquiries)
Sue Charles/Deborah Bell
microbiotica@instinctif.com
+44 20 7866 7860

Genentech’s Immunology/Infectious Disease Deal Maker On Following The Science

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Genentech’s infectious diseases and immunology dealmaker speaks to Scrip about the significance of following the science when it comes to partnering.

When reflecting on the licensing deals inked this year by biotech behemoth Genentech Inc., two really stand out: the June deal with microbiome company Microbiotica Ltd. to discover, develop and commercialize treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), (Also see “Genentech Mines The Microbiome Again With IBD Deal” – Scrip, 7 Jun, 2018.) and the collaboration signed with Germany’s Affimed NV to develop and commercialize novel natural killer (NK) cell engager-based immunotherapeutics to treat multiple cancers. (Also see “Roche Pact Is Affirmation Of Affimed Technology ” – Scrip, 28 Aug, 2018.)

Both these deals bring cutting edge science to Roche’s biotech arm, says Don O’Sullivan, the company’s head of Immunology and Infectious Disease business development, and the man behind Genentech’s move into the science and potential of the microbiome. It may not be Genentech’s first foray into the world of the microbiome, (Also see “Deal Watch: Genentech Gets Down In The Dirt With Lodo Therapeutics” – Scrip, 11 May, 2018.) but it certainly marks a line in the sand; the biotech is serious about the potential this field of science brings to medicine.

“That was a real significant move for us; we are following the science. We’ve been watching that space for a while, and waited to find a company that came to us with a true depth of science and innovation,” O’Sullivan explained to Scrip.

The deal centers on IBD, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The companies are analyzing samples from clinical trials for etrolizumab, Genentech’s humanized IgG1 MAb which targets the beta 7 integrin subunit, and IL22-Fc a recombinant human protein with potential application across multiple inflammatory and metabolic diseases. From these samples the team identifies bacterial signatures which could identify response to drugs, non-responders, novel targets and novel therapeutics. Genentech had been monitoring the microbiome space closely for “at least four years” before a deal was struck. Largely a field of observational studies, it was only when Microbiotica and its co-founder and chief scientific officer Trevor Lawley brought “rigorous science” to Genentech’s table that a scientific meeting of minds between the two companies could be arranged.

“You can tell, within an hour of our scientists talking to their scientists, whether there’s going to be a deal, without doubt. There was deep scientific respect, and rigor that both teams bring to the table and frankly, the scientists were nagging us to get the deal done as quickly as possible,” recalls O’Sullivan.

And this marker of intent is clear on other deals that Genentech has struck this year, the $95m deal with Affimed, for example and the collaboration announced in April between Roche’s biotech arm and the Seattle-based Kineta Inc. on a non-opioid pain therapy that is touted to be “disease modifying”. ( (Also see “Genentech Bets On Kineta’s Early-Stage, Disease-Modifying Pain Therapy” – Scrip, 16 Apr, 2018.)) “There has to be that connection with the scientists at first, otherwise there’s going to be no deal,” says British-born O’Sullivan.

When asked about his devotion to finding new medicines, O’Sullivan answers simply: “It’s my life.” He has worked at the San Francisco-based company for over eight years, and before that was in corporate development at Genzyme Corp.. He has a PhD from Cambridge University in Molecular Biology, and an MBA in Healthcare and Finance from The Wharton School.

O’Sullivan was also the dealmaker behind arguably Genentech’s most exciting new discovery, the ‘unexpected antibiotic’. This “small deal” done with a San Diego-based company, RQx, in 2013 may potentially bring the first new class of Gram-negative antibacterials since 1968. ( (Also see “Genentech’s early-stage RQx deal marks third 2013 venture exit for Avalon” – Scrip, 13 Feb, 2013.)) In September, the paper Optimized arylomycins are a new class of Gramnegative antibiotics appeared in Nature. “Antibacterial drug discovery is not easy and it’s a reflection of the high degree of science and rigor that goes into the program,” he says.

“Partnering is always going to be key,” says O’Sullivan, when asked about how the future of new medicines will be developed in infectious disease and immunology. “With a lot of the funding that has been available recently, it’s good to see that there is a lot of new exciting companies being formed and having the money to do the killer experiments. We feel excited about the space.”

Meeting with Scrip at the BIO-Europe conference, O’Sullivan is of course primarily attending to meet with infectious diseases companies, to sniff out the latest scientific potential. “We meet with a lot of these companies, we give them counsel as to what data we need to see to sign a deal,” he explains. “They go away, do their work and come back and then when we meet them the next year, it’s just great to see that improvement. There is significant advancement in the antibacterial space at the moment.”

https://scrip.pharmaintelligence.informa.com/SC124136/Genentechs-ImmunologyInfectious-Disease-Deal-Maker-On-Following-The-Science

Microbiotica Wins Life Sciences Company of the Year at Cambridge Independent Awards

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Cambridge, UK, 2 November 2018 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, announces that it has been named Life Sciences Company of the Year at the Cambridge Independent Awards, which took place last night at the Hilton Cambridge City Centre Hotel.

Microbiotica was recognised for a year of continued development in the fast-growing microbiome space. This year it has collaborated with Genentech, a member of the Roche group, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, to discover, develop and commercialise treatments for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.  The deal could see the Company earn up to $534m in upfront and milestone payments.

In addition, Microbiotica has partnered with the University of Adelaide to access clinical trial samples to facilitate Microbiotica’s own live bacterial therapeutics discovery programme in ulcerative colitis.

Speaking of the Company’s win, CEO Mike Romanos said: “We are proud to be recognised for the milestones we have achieved this year.  We are only scratching the surface when it comes to unlocking Microbiotica’s potential. This year has been significant for Microbiotica and our team has been instrumental to our achievements, for which I would like to thank them.”

In 2016, Microbiotica was created with £8m funding from Cambridge Innovation Capital and IP Group to commercialise the ground-breaking research of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. In October, Microbiotica attracted additional equity investment from Seventure Partners, bringing the total invested in the Company to date to £12m.

Microbiotica Participates in Microbiome Panel Discussion at this year’s Bio-Europe®

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Cambridge, UK, 30 October 2018 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics, today announced that it will join the microbiome panel at this year’s BIO-Europe®, taking place in Copenhagen between 5-7 November.

Mike Romanos, CEO of Microbiotica, will participate in the Microbiome and the Implication on Other Therapeutic Areas along with panellists from Enterome, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Health Opportunities GmbH, Sorbonne University and Seventure Partners, Microbiotica’s newest investor. The panel will take place in Room C2 between 1.30-2.30pm on Monday 5 November.

The BIO-Europe 2018 partnering event is expected to draw over 4,000 industry attendees for three days of high-level networking, representing more than 2,000 companies from over 60 countries.

Microbiotica has had a transformational year in 2018, signing collaborative deals with Genentech and the University of Adelaide, as well as securing additional investment.

Microbiotica Attracts Equity Investment from Seventure’s Health for Life Capital™ Fund

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  • Seventure Partners, a specialist investor in the microbiome, commits new funding from Health for Life Capital™ and strengthens Microbiotica’s Board with microbiome sector expertise and know-how.
  • Joins founding investors, Cambridge Innovation Capital and IP Group, by committing £4m, bringing total equity raised to £12m.

Cambridge, UK, 24 October 2018 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics, today announced that it has attracted an equity investment from Seventure Partners, a leading investor in the microbiome space. This new investment of £4m brings the total equity raised to date to £12m.

The company, which was founded in 2016 to develop transformational technology developed at the Sanger Institute, has made rapid progress in developing a unique capability to culture, characterise and phenotype the majority of a patient’s gut bacteria, enabling the precise association of bacteria to function at clinical trial scale.

Mike Romanos, CEO of Microbiotica, said: “The microbiome represents a paradigm shift which requires the re-evaluation of almost every aspect of biomedicine. Microbiotica’s world-leading microbiome culture collection and reference genome database enable unprecedented precision of gut bacterial identification and provide the foundation for the company to develop its own pipeline of microbiome-derived therapeutics and biomarkers. We look forward to working with Iain Wilcock, who will join the Microbiotica Board of Directors, and with the broader Seventure team led by Isabelle De Cremoux.”

Isabelle de Cremoux, CEO of Seventure Partners, said: “We have watched Microbiotica make dramatic progress in implementing its vision and believe the company has developed a powerful set of capabilities for biomarker and therapeutic discovery in the microbiome field. We believe that the company has the potential to become a global leader in this fast-growing area, led by a strong and ambitious management team with considerable depth of expertise and experience, and are excited to be involved in helping realise this potential.”

As a result of this investment, Microbiotica’s shareholders comprise the Founders, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge Innovation Capital, IP Group plc and Seventure Partners.

Microbiotica Collaborates with University of Adelaide to Develop a Novel Microbial Therapy for Ulcerative Colitis

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Cambridge, UK, 18 June 2018 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with University of Adelaide as part of its programme to develop a defined bacterial product for ulcerative colitis (UC). Financial details have not been disclosed.

Microbiotica is collaborating with Dr Sam Costello, Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide and Department of Gastroenterology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, to develop a new therapeutic to treat UC. Dr Costello led a faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) study the results of which demonstrate the ability to induce remission in UC, without significant side-effects. This data is compelling evidence for a novel therapeutic approach based on resetting gut microbiota.

Under the agreement, Microbiotica will analyse clinical samples from the Adelaide FMT study to identify the specific bacteria which successfully treated the condition. Microbiotica has developed the leading platform for culture-based precision metagenomics, enabling large-scale strain-level characterisation of microbiome profiles linked to patient phenotype.

“As yet very few placebo-controlled clinical studies have been completed which show that altering a patient’s microbiome through faecal microbiota transplantation can cause remission in ulcerative colitis. Dr Costello is a pioneer in this area and this collaboration is strategically important to our ulcerative colitis programme,” said Dr Trevor Lawley, CSO of Microbiotica.

“We are adopting a clinic-first discovery approach and taking this high-quality research to the next stage to generate a therapeutic candidate which we will progress as an orally administered defined bacterial therapy for ulcerative colitis,” he said.

Dr Costello said: “Ulcerative colitis is a disease with significant unmet therapeutic need, and while faecal microbiota transplantation is already showing promise in inducing remission, a defined bacterial product would be a big step forwards. We are pleased to be collaborating with Microbiotica on its programme.”

Microbiotica is progressing on a number of fronts – continuing to invest in and further develop its platform, to secure strategic industry partnerships and, as in this collaboration, to progress its own pipeline. Recently Microbiotica announced a $534 million strategic partnership with Genentech to discover, develop and commercialise biomarkers, targets and medicines for inflammatory bowel disease.

Microbiotica Enters into Microbiome Collaboration with Genentech

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  • Strategic collaboration for microbiome biomarker signatures and therapeutic discovery based on Genentech’s inflammatory bowel disease pipeline
  • Utilises Microbiotica’s leading gut microbiome Reference Genome Database and Culture Collection
  • Microbiotica to receive up to $534 million in upfront and milestone payments

Cambridge, UK, 6 June 2018 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics spun out of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, today announced that it has entered into a multi-year strategic collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover, develop and commercialise biomarkers, targets and medicines for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Under the terms of the agreement, Microbiotica will utilise its precision metagenomics microbiome platform to analyse patient samples from clinical trials of Genentech’s investigational IBD medicines, in order to identify microbiome biomarker signatures of drug response, novel IBD drug targets and live bacterial therapeutic products. Microbiotica will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and is eligible to receive research, development and commercialisation milestone payments up to $534 million based on achievement of certain predetermined milestones. In addition, Microbiotica is eligible to receive royalties on sales of certain products resulting from the collaboration. Genentech also has an option to license assets that Microbiotica develops as a result of the research collaboration.

Microbiotica was formed 18 months ago with funding from Cambridge Innovation Capital and IP Group to commercialise ground-breaking microbiome science at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, from the laboratory of Dr Trevor Lawley, CSO of Microbiotica.

The Microbiotica platform comprises the world’s leading microbiome Culture Collection and linked Reference Genome Database that enable unprecedented precision of gut bacterial identification at clinical trial scale. The Company is adding to this at a very rapid rate through its industrial culturing and sequencing pipeline, providing the best available representation of clinical trial samples for strain-level identification of bacteria. The complex datasets that arise from such studies are analysed using AI techniques to discern microbiome signatures linked to phenotype. The availability of the physical Culture Collection enables biological evaluation of bacteria in proprietary translational models including humanised microbiome mouse models.

Dr Mike Romanos, CEO of Microbiotica, said: “This collaboration brings together a world-class pipeline of investigational IBD medicines from Genentech with the world-class microbiome capability of Microbiotica. We are excited by the opportunity to work with Genentech scientists in order to bring precision metagenomics into the clinical arena for the first time, enabling us to develop biomarkers and medicines for the benefit of patients.”

“This collaboration reflects Microbiotica’s strategy of utilising its platform for medicines and biomarker discovery while simultaneously expanding platform capabilities. Whilst Genentech will retain rights to proprietary biomarkers, targets and medicines, the collaboration will enable Microbiotica to continue to rapidly expand its already leading Reference Genome Database and Culture Collection, further strengthening its value across all therapeutic areas.” added Dr Romanos.

James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Global Head of Genentech Partnering, said: “We believe the microbiome represents a new paradigm in biomedicine, both for understanding drug response and as a novel therapeutic modality. We have chosen to collaborate with Microbiotica because of its high-quality science and look forward to working together to potentially bring new medicines to people suffering from IBD.”

Microbiotica to Present at Top Microbiome Conferences

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Cambridge, UK, 22 May 2018 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics, announces that it will present at leading microbiome conferences throughout May and June.

Microbiome Invest – 23 May, London, UK

Dr Mike Romanos, co-founder and CEO of Microbiotica, will join panellists David Cook, Seres Therapeutics and Luc Sterkman, Caelius Therapeutics BV for a panel entitled The Journey of a Microbiome Biotech.

The Microbiome Movement – Drug Development Summit, 20-22 June, Boston, USA

  • 3.00pm, 21 June – Dr Romanos will participate in the panel discussion The Supporting Role of the Pre-clinical CRO When Conducting Microbiome Research, joined by panellists from the Janssen Human Microbiome Institute, Charles River Laboratories and Finch Group Therapeutics.  Read Mike’s speaker interview here.
  • 10.00am, 22 June – Dr Trevor Lawley, co-founder and CSO will present Culturing the Unculturable to Enable Precision Metagenomics.

The Microbiotica team will also attend the 3rd Annual Advances in Immuno-oncology Congress, 24-25 May, London, UK and the 7th IHMC International Human Microbiome Congress, 26-28 June, Killarney, Ireland.

Microbiotica to Participate in Microbiome Panel at BIO-Europe®

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Cambridge, UK, 25th October 2017 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics, today announces that Nigel Crockett, Head of Business Development, will participate in the Microbiome panel at the 23rd Annual International Partnering Conference, BIO-Europe®, which will be held from 6-8 November, in Berlin, Germany.

The discussion, entitled ‘Targeting the microbiome: From scientific evidence to regulatory approval‘, will take place on 6th November at 2.45 pm.  The panel will discuss the therapeutic potential of this fast-growing field of research and the variety of strategies that companies have to choose from, as well as considering how companies select the best clinical and regulatory pathway for their products.

BIO-Europe® is Europe’s largest life science partnering conference; it provides a forum for companies across the biotech industry to meet and do business, through its range of workshops, exhibitions, panels and one-to-one meetings.

Microbiotica, spun-out of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2016, was formed around ground-breaking research led by Dr Trevor Lawley and is focused on microbiome biology and its use in medicine, covering both novel bacterial therapeutics and patient diagnostics.

Microbiotica Celebrates Successful First Year with Third Award Win

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Company receives ‘Best Start-up Biotech’ at OBN Awards

Cambridge, UK, 11 October 2017 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, announces that it has been awarded UK Best Start-up Biotech at the OBN Awards, which took place at Oxford Town Hall.

The award recognises Microbiotica’s commercial potential in the fast-growing microbiome space, reflecting its innovative approach to transforming personalised medicine across therapeutic areas through leading microbiome science.

In 2016, Microbiotica was created with £8m funding from Cambridge Innovation Capital and IP Group to commercialise the ground-breaking research of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Mike Romanos, CEO of Microbiotica, said of the win: “We are delighted to have received the recognition of our peers in the UK biotech industry with our third industry award win. We believe this reflects the strength of the science that the Company is based on, the quality of our team and the very rapid progress it has made in the first year.”

The OBN Awards celebrate innovation and outstanding achievement across the UK Life Sciences industry.