Microbiome company Vedanta Biosciences raises $68m in Series D

Vedanta Biosciences, a clinical-stage microbiome company founded by PureTech Health, has raised $68 million in a Series D financing round led by affiliates of Magnetar Capital.

The Cambridge-based company is using defined bacterial consortia manufactured from clonal cell banks for developing a new category of oral therapies for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases.

Other participants in the Series D round were new and existing investors such as Verition Fund Management, Fosun Health Capital, PureTech Health, Skyviews Life Science, JSR Corporation, Rock Springs Capital, Shumway Capital, SymBiosis LLC, Health for Life Capital (Seventure Partners) and other institutional investors.

Pfizer invested $25 million in Vedanta Biosciences in the Series D round under the Pfizer Breakthrough Growth Initiative, which was announced earlier this year.

Following the Series D round, PureTech Health has a stake of nearly 41.4% in the microbiome company.

Ted Koutouzis – Managing Director of Fiscus Venture and Reimagined Ventures, affiliates of Magnetar, said: “Drugs based on defined bacterial consortia are a promising new therapeutic modality with the potential to transform medicine, and Vedanta is the leader in this category, with a state-of-the-art discovery platform, field-leading GMP manufacturing capabilities, and an advanced pipeline.”

Microbiome company Vedanta Biosciences raises $68m in Series D. Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay.

The microbiome company plans to use the capital for advancing its pipeline of defined bacterial consortia. This includes advancing VE303 into a phase 3 clinical trial in patients who are highly prone to recurrent clostridioides difficile infection (CDI).

Vedanta Biosciences will also use the proceeds for launching a phase 2 clinical trial of VE202 in patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis apart from continuing to advance programs in other indications.

Bernat Olle – Co-Founder and CEO of Vedanta Biosciences said: “Since our last funding round, we have made significant progress advancing defined bacterial consortia as a new modality for infectious and immune-mediated diseases.

“This most recent financing, together with the support we receive from BARDA for our CDI program, will enable us to advance mid- and late-stage programs in CDI and IBD, as well as support early exploratory clinical studies in additional indications.”

In late 2018, Vedanta Biosciences had raised $27 million in a Series C financing round.