Microbiotica Wins Life Sciences Company of the Year at Cambridge Independent Awards

Cambridge, UK, 2 November 2018 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, announces that it has been named Life Sciences Company of the Year at the Cambridge Independent Awards, which took place last night at the Hilton Cambridge City Centre Hotel.

Microbiotica was recognised for a year of continued development in the fast-growing microbiome space. This year it has collaborated with Genentech, a member of the Roche group, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, to discover, develop and commercialise treatments for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. The deal could see the Company earn up to $534m in upfront and milestone payments.

In addition, Microbiotica has partnered with the University of Adelaide to access clinical trial samples to facilitate Microbiotica’s own live bacterial therapeutics discovery programme in ulcerative colitis.

Speaking of the Company’s win, CEO Mike Romanos said: “We are proud to be recognised for the milestones we have achieved this year. We are only scratching the surface when it comes to unlocking Microbiotica’s potential. This year has been significant for Microbiotica and our team has been instrumental to our achievements, for which I would like to thank them.”

In 2016, Microbiotica was created with £8m funding from Cambridge Innovation Capital and IP Group to commercialise the ground-breaking research of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. In October, Microbiotica attracted additional equity investment from Seventure Partners, bringing the total invested in the Company to date to £12m.

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Notes to Editors

About Microbiotica

Microbiotica was established in 2016 to develop and commercialise ground-breaking research into the role of the human microbiome in health and disease and its application to medicine conducted in the Host-Microbiotica Interactions Laboratory (“HMIL”) at the Sanger Institute. The Company was founded by Dr Mike Romanos, Dr Trevor Lawley and Professor Gordon Dougan, FRS. Microbiotica is based at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridge, UK, with offices in the Biodata Innovation Centre and laboratories in the Sanger Institute. It has a strategic collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, in the field of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as well as with University of Adelaide to develop a defined product for ulcerative colitis.

Microbiotica has attracted £12m in equity investment from Cambridge Innovation Capital, IP Group plc and Seventure Partners.

For more information, please visit www.microbiotica.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Microbiotica’s platform

The Microbiotica platform comprises the world’s leading microbiome Culture Collection and linked Reference Genome Database that enable unprecedented precision of gut bacterial identification 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 analysed 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 humanised microbiome mouse models.

About the Microbiome

Recognition of the importance of the microbiome, the body’s trillions of resident bacteria, represents a paradigm-shift in our understanding of its impact on human health and disease. This creates major opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of disease including enteric infections, autoimmune disorders, metabolic disorders, cancer and neurological disease.

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