Microbiotica and Genentech have entered into a multi-year strategic collaboration to discover, develop, and commercialize biomarkers, targets and medicines for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Under the terms of the agreement, Microbiotica will utilize its precision metagenomics microbiome platform to analyze 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 commercialization 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.
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 analyzed 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 humanized microbiome mouse models.
“This collaboration reflects Microbiotica’s strategy of utilizing its platform for medicines and biomarker discovery while simultaneously expanding platform capabilities. While 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,” says Dr. Mike Romanos, CEO of Microbiotica.
James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., senior VP 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.”
(Source: Microbiotica)