Vedanta Biosciences secures $27m to propel microbiome drug pipeline

US-based Vedanta Biosciences has raised $27 million in a Series C financing round to accelerate its pioneering work on microbiome-derived therapeutics. The funding round attracted prominent backers, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Rock Springs Capital, Invesco Asset Management, Seventure Partners, and its founder, PureTech Health.

Pipeline advancement plans

The company plans to utilise the new funding to advance key clinical trials, including:

• VE416: A phase 1/2 trial targeting food allergies.
• VE800 and Opdivo (nivolumab): A phase 1b/2 trial focusing on advanced or metastatic cancers in collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
• VE303: A recently launched phase 2 trial for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (rCDI).

Vedanta Biosciences’ co-founder and CEO, Bernat Olle, expressed gratitude for investor support, highlighting the company’s leadership in microbiome drug development. Olle emphasised the safety and efficacy demonstrated by bacterial consortia as a drug modality in human trials and stated that the funds will help the company progress programs in recurrent C. difficile infection, food allergy, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and cancer indications.

Collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb

Earlier in November, Vedanta Biosciences announced a clinical trial collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb to evaluate its VE800 in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, Opdivo, in patients with advanced or metastatic cancers.

Expanding inflammatory bowel disease research

The company has also initiated a phase 1 clinical trial for VE202, an orally-administered live biotherapeutic product candidate for inflammatory bowel disease. This trial, conducted in collaboration with Janssen Research & Development, explores VE202’s potential in healthy volunteers. Janssen has committed $12 million in milestone payments as part of its collaboration with Vedanta Biosciences, which could reach up to $339 million in milestone and royalty payments.

Investor confidence underscores potential

The Series C round underscores investor confidence in Vedanta Biosciences’ approach to rationally-defined bacterial consortia and its potential to address unmet needs in oncology, infectious diseases, and autoimmune conditions. With its robust pipeline and collaborations, Vedanta is poised to shape the future of microbiome-derived therapeutics.