Symbiotix has licensed more Harvard IP to propel the commercialisation of T-cell modulators based on studies of the human microbiome.
Symbiotix Biotherapies, a US-based molecular therapeutics developer advancing research from several institutions, has secured an additional licence for intellectual property from Harvard University.
Founded in 2009, Symbiotix is working on Reglemers, a type of T-cell modulator intended to provide relief for patients living with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The approach relies on molecules originating from the human microbiome, an internal microorganism network increasingly regarded as crucial to developing new therapies.
The new licences commercialise more work performed by Symbiotix scientific co-founder Dennis Kasper, professor of microbiology and immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. Kasper’s assets are expected to enhance the formulation and methodology of Symbiotix’s approach.
Symbiotix’s lead asset is an oral anti-inflammatory medication for conditions including inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis. The company’s founding research came from Harvard Medical School and one of its affiliated teaching hospital, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, as well as California Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College.
VC firm Kairos Ventures provided Symbiotix with an undisclosed sum of funding in November 2017, and VC fund Partners Innovation Fund has also invested previously.
Nader Yaghoubi, president and chief executive of Symbiotix, said: “We are extraordinarily pleased to expand our extensive intellectual property portfolio with this licence agreement.
“Symbiotix has steadily built the leading intellectual property portfolio in the microbiome sector, which now includes licence agreements with four academic institutions, and includes issued composition-of-matter patents protecting our lead program.”
