IP Group launches Microbiotica venture
Intellectual property-based business developer IP Group announced the creation of Microbiotica on Monday, which it described as a newly formed spin-out company from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute established to commercialise the institute's research into the role of the human microbiome in disease.
Financial Services
13,982.24
10:20 24/04/24
FTSE 250
19,789.06
10:20 24/04/24
FTSE 350
4,440.65
10:20 24/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,394.68
10:20 24/04/24
IP Group
48.05p
09:39 24/04/24
The FTSE 250 company said it was co-leading the investment with Cambridge Innovation Capital, a Cambridge-based investor in technology and healthcare companies in which IP Group is a shareholder, with a £4m contribution from each party to provide total initial funding of £8m.
It said that reflected IP Group and CIC's ongoing partnership under which they share information on investment and co-investment opportunities in the ‘Cambridge Cluster’.
IP Group’s board said recognition of the importance to human health of the trillions of bacteria that reside in the human intestine - known as the gut microbiome - had created major opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of diseases including cancer, infection and metabolic, neurological and autoimmune disorders.
The Sanger Institute team, led by Dr Trevor Lawley, had been at the forefront of this research, having built one of the world's most extensive collections of cultured human gut bacteria with associated genome analysis, along with humanised models for the development of therapeutics based on live bacteria.
Microbiotica had been granted unique access to those resources and will use the funding from IP Group and CIC to establish labs within the Wellcome Genome Campus at Hinxton, Cambridge, and to progress multiple live bacteriotherapy programmes into development.
“We are delighted to be partnering with both CIC and the Sanger Institute to develop what promises to be an exciting new commercial approach to the microbiome,” said IP Group head of biotech Sam Williams.
“By exploring the fundamentals of gut flora distribution and genetics, Microbiotica has an opportunity to take a lead in understanding how the microbiome can be used to not only develop new therapeutics for a range of diseases, but also how to stratify patients according to their microbial profile, identify links with disease and exploit its full potential for human healthcare.
Williams said the investment reflected IP Group's approach to new company formation in the biotech sector, backing only the science which promises to bring about revolutionary approaches to human medicine and teams that can deliver them.
Microbiotica's science will be directed by Dr Lawley, who will be chief scientific officer.
The company will be led by Dr Mike Romanos who IP Group said, as chief executive officer, will bring extensive experience as a drug discoverer and entrepreneur in the biotech sector.
Dr Romanos previously held senior global roles in GSK and, as CEO, built Crescendo Biologics.
Both CIC and IP Group will each appoint a director to the board of Microbiotica.
“It has been a privilege to work with my co-founders to create the concept of Microbiotica as a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics,” said Mike Romanos.
“We are very excited to be working with IP Group and CIC to now turn the vision into reality as we start to build the company, based at the Wellcome Genome Campus, leveraging the strengths of the Sanger Institute to create new medicines.”