Vedanta Biosciences, a human gut microbial innovative drug discovery and development company, announced the closing of a Series C2 financing round, 36 Krypton has learned exclusively. This round brings Vedanta Biosciences' total Series C and Series C2 funding to $62.1 million.
Investors in the round include Quad Investment Management, SV Investment Corp, Shinhan Investment Private Equity, Shinhan Capital Yeollim Partners, Partners Investment, FC Capital and Symbiosis LLC, as well as existing Series C investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Rock Springs Capital, JSR Corporation, Shumway Capital, Invesco Asset Management, Health for Life (Seventure Partners) and PureTech Health.
China eCapital Partners LLC acted as financial advisor to Vedanta Biosciences in its Series C2 financing.
Image from Vedanta Biosciences official website
Vedanta Biosciences focuses on the development of novel therapeutic approaches for immune-mediated diseases based on the human gut microbiota, aiming to produce robust and long-lasting therapeutic changes in the human gut microbiota.
Unlike fecal transplants and fecal component control therapies, Vedanta Biosciences' colony drugs are composed of well-defined component strains produced by a monoclonal cell bank, and do not rely on directly sourced fecal donor material with varying components.
The company has achieved the identification of bacteria that are symbiotic and multifunctional with humans, including colonies that elicit a range of immune responses, such as those that induce T-cells, CD8+ T-cells and Th17 cells. Its self-developed platform technology allows precise control of the compositional structure of bacterial flora drugs, solving the core challenge of traditional donor-dependent gut microbial drugs with variable components. The company's research advances have been published in leading journals, including Science (multiple articles), Nature (2013, 2019), Cell and Nature Immunology.
Vedanta Biosciences has developed a pipeline of investigational live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) in the areas of infectious diseases, immune-mediated diseases, allergies and tumor immunology. The company's product pipeline includes three clinical-stage product candidates, two of which are licensed to major international pharmaceutical companies such as BMS and Johnson & Johnson for subsequent development.
Vedanta is currently evaluating its gut microbiology products for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infections and inflammatory bowel disease (in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson) as well as food allergies. Additionally a fourth product candidate, expected to enter the clinic in 2019, will be used in combination with BMS' immune checkpoint inhibitor OPDIVO® for the treatment of advanced or metastatic cancer.
The funds raised in this round of financing will be used to support Vedanta Biosciences in advancing its clinical pipeline, including the recently initiated Phase Ib/II clinical study of VE416 for the treatment of food allergies, the planned Phase Ib/II study of VE800 in combination with OPDIVO® (nabumab) for the treatment of advanced or metastatic cancer, and the ongoing Phase II clinical study of VE303 for the treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (rCDI).
