Enterome SA, based in Paris and Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced a new financing totaling $52.6 million (€46.3 million). This was a Series E round.
Enterome SA, based in Paris and Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced a new financing totaling $52.6 million (€46.3 million). This was a Series E round, with new investors including SymBiosis, a microbiome-focused investment firm, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. Existing investors including Seventure, Health for Life Capital, Principia, Omnes Capital and Nestle Health Science, also participated.
The company plans to advance EO2401 into two phase I/II clinical trials in glioblastoma and adrenal tumors. The therapy is an innovative, off-the-shelf immuno-oncology compound. Both trials are expected to begin in mid-2040. The therapy is the first compound to come out of the company’s first-in-class OncoMimics platform.
OncoMimics are peptide antigens that are derived from the microbiome. The microbiome refers to the trillions of microorganisms—bacteria, fungi, viruses—that live in and on the body. Increasingly, the microbiome is being found to have a direct and indirect effect on various diseases, not just gastrointestinal disorders.
In the case of OncoMimics, they are chosen for their ability to trigger the activation of memory T-cells that respond to gut bacteria and also to direct a targeted cell-killing immune response against the tumor. EO2401 combines three OncoMimics found in aggressive tumors such as glioblastoma and adrenal malignancies.
The company’s second OncoMimic candidate is EO2463. This is a new multi-peptide cancer immunotherapy expected to begin clinical trials in 2021 for B-cell lymphomas and leukemias.
Its lead EndoMimic candidate is EM101, a human hormone mimetic generated by commensal bacteria. The company is running preclinical studies as a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
“We are extremely pleased to have completed this significant financing round, which represents an attractive balance of dilutive and non-dilutive funds,” said Pierre Belichard, Enterome’s chief executive officer. “The financing will be used to progress EO2401, the first targeted immunotherapy generated from our unique OncoMimetics platform.”
He went on to say, “This platform capitalizes on the well-described, constant interaction between the microbiome and the immune system, resulting in a pool of memory T-cells directed against specific commensal bacterial antigens that we have identified.”
The company found that the antigens are similar the those found on multiple cancer types and can stimulate a targeted, anti-tumor response.
Enterome also will use the proceeds to support Takeda Pharmaceutical’s proof-of-concept clinical trial of EB8018 (sibofimloc/TAK-018), an oral FimH blocker for the treatment of Crohn’s disease.
“Takeda’s participation in this fundraising round builds on our long-standing productive collaboration with Enterome which is focused on the clinical development of sibofimloc, an oral FimH blocker for the treatment of Crohn’s disease,” said Asit Parikh, head, Gastroenterology Therapeutic Area Unit at Takeda.
Enterome and Takeda entered into the global licensing, co-development and co-promotion deal for EB8018 in October 2018. Takeda paid Enterome $50 million up front and made a commitment for a future equity investment. Enterome is also eligible for up to $640 million in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. The two companies are codeveloping the drug and if approved, will be co-promoted in the U.S. under a profit/cost sharing structure. Takeda holds an exclusive license to commercialize it outside the U.S. and pay Enterome a share of royalties on net sales.
Unlike some of the other companies involved in microbiome therapies, Enterome doesn’t directly utilize bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract. Instead, it has developed a database of proteins and peptides the bacteria secrete in order to identify possible treatment for a wide variety of diseases, such as Crohn’s, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer.
In the GI tract, the microbiome-derived peptide antigens are protected, but can be identified by their epitopes—a molecule on the antigen—to memory T-cells. What this means is that once the antigens are seen in the blood, the T-cells attack them. And they have developed, in the case of EO2401, therapeutics that stimulate the T-cells to attack specific tumors.
