Enterome Opens Up U.S Office in Kendall Square

Enterome Opens Up U.S. Office in Kendall Square May 19, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A new player has taken up residence in the white hot square mile of Kendall Square. Paris-based Enterome Bioscience SA, which is developing therapies and diagnostics focused on the gut microbiome, opened an office in the pharma hub, the company announced this morning.

Enterome, which launched in 2012, said the new office brings the company closer to its partners in the United States and “provides opportunities to reinforce and extend its scientific expertise and network to develop its business further.” The company has partnerships to develop therapies for irritable bowel syndrome with Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson , as well as Takeda Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie . Enterome also has partnerships with the Mayo Clinic and Geisinger hospitals for metabolic disorders.

Cambridge’s Kendall Square area, which makes up approximately one square mile, is packed with biotech representatives, including Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company , Amgen , GlaxoSmithKline , Takeda Pharmaceuticals (TKPYY), Sanofi , Biogen and Novartis AG . There are also a plethora of other cutting-edge companies, such as Alnylam and bluebird bio. One of the reasons for the greater Boston area becoming such a major hub in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries is the number of research universities in the area. Boston also has one of the highest educated workforces in the nation. The close proximity of so many pharmaceutical and university laboratories provides researchers and scientists easy access to clinical studies and for building partnerships between companies.

Rodolphe Clerval, Enterome's chief business officer, will helm the U.S. office and expects to expand the operation over the coming years, the company said.

"Enterome has made great progress leveraging its expertise to unlock the microbiome and identify exciting opportunities to improve the treatment of serious diseases. We have established several partnerships and strong relationships in the U.S. with companies and clinicians at leading research institutions. By starting operations in one of the most vibrant life sciences hubs in the world, we can leverage on these relationships and advance the development of Enterome,” Clerval said in a statement.

In April, Enterome raised $16.5 million in financing, supported in part by Nestle Health. Enterome will use the funds raised to advance the development of its lead drug candidate EB8018 into its first clinical studies during 2016 as a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). EB 8018 is a novel small molecule FimH antagonist licensed from Vertex that specifically targets adherent invasive escherichia coli proliferation in the gut, one of the main causes of inflammatory colitis in IBD sufferers.

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