Microbiome therapeutics company BiomX Ltd. has secured $24 million in a Series A financing. The round was led by OrbiMed, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc. and Takeda Ventures, Inc. with participation from Seventure Partners, MiraeAsset, SBI Japan-Israel Innovation Fund and other European investors. The company says that proceeds from the round will be used to advance its novel therapeutic pipeline towards clinical stages and to continue enhancing its proprietary microbiome modulation platform technologies.
BiomX, previously named MBcure, was founded in the FutuRx Ltd. incubator, with the support of the Israel Innovation Authority.
"We are fortunate to have such exceptional strategic investors support us and our vision of developing novel therapies for unmet medical needs based on our proprietary understanding and modulation of the microbiome," said BiomX CEO Jonathan Solomon. "We are committed to utilize our technological capabilities for the accelerated development of our pipeline towards clinical stage products."
BiomX focuses on developing novel therapeutics to alleviate human diseases stemming from dysbiosis of the microbiome. The company offers a complete end-to-end solution from target discovery to development of therapeutic compounds, with flexible capabilities to precisely modulate the microbiome and restore microbial balance through adding or eradicating bacteria with both native and synthetically altered phages (viruses that attack bacteria).
BiomX’s microbiome modulation technologies are based on the pioneer science and research of its scientific collaborators: Professor Rotem Sorek and Dr. Eran Elinav, both of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Professor Timothy K. Lu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company’s therapeutic pipeline consists of products for the treatment of acne, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), cancer, and therapeutics that modulate the microbiome for improved performance of immuno-oncology drugs.
Anya Eldan, General Manager, Start-Up Division, Israel Innovation Authority, said, "The Israel Innovation Authority’s support of risky early-stage projects with large potential enables establishment of such a promising company at the forefront of delivering microbiome therapeutics."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 15, 2017
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