Israel-based microbiome therapy developer BiomX raised $24m on Monday in a series A round co-led by healthcare investment firm OrbiMed and subsidiaries of pharmaceutical firms Johnson & Johnson and Takeda.
The round also featured Seventure Partners, MiraeAsset and SBI Japan-Israel Innovation Fund, the latter backed by financial services provider SBI Group. The pharmaceutical companies invested through their Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Takeda Ventures units.
Founded as MBcure, BiomX is working on drugs to prevent or treat diseases or conditions for which imbalances in the microbiome – the bacteria located in the human body – are responsible, and could include cancer, acne and inflammatory bowel disease.
The company is a product of FutuRx, the Israel-based incubator established by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Takeda Ventures and OrbiMed subsidiary OrbiMed Israel Partners.
BiomX CEO Jonathan Solomon said: “We are fortunate to have such exceptional strategic investors support us and our vision of developing novel therapies for unmet medical needs based on our proprietary understanding and modulation of the microbiome.
“We are committed to utilise our technological capabilities for the accelerated development of our pipeline towards clinical stage products.”