Enterome Bioscience, a France-based company developing drugs and diagnostics based on the gut microbiome, received €14.5m ($16.3m) in series C financing on Wednesday from backers including pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck and food producer Nestlé.
The corporates, which participated through their Lundbeckfond Ventures and Nestlé Health Science units respectively, were joined by investors including venture capital firm Seventure Partners.
The cash will be used to move Enterome’s lead product candidate, a drug treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) known as EB 8018, into clinical testing later this year. It also plans to advance therapies for IBD, additional microbiome-related diseases and immuno-oncology therapeutic programs.
Enterome has now raised approximately $38m altogether. Lundbeckfond Ventures led its $13.9m series B round in mid-2014, investing alongside Seventure Partners and Omnes Capital.
Lundbeckfond Ventures and Seventure co-led a $6.6m series A round for Enterome in 2012, after Seventure and Inra Transfert, the tech transfer arm of French National Institute in Agronomic Research, had provided €1.5m in seed funding.
Pierre Belichard, Enterome’s CEO, said: “We are pleased that our existing investors have taken the decision to make a further financial commitment to Enterome. We are also delighted that Nestlé Health Science has become a new strategic investor in the company to support our development programs.
“We anticipate that access to their expertise and broader capabilities will be valuable in helping us achieve our ambitions. With these new funds we anticipate making further significant progress towards our goal of creating new treatments for patients suffering from conditions where the gut microbiome plays a key role.”