— New investor Bpifrance leads Series B extension through the PSIM fund it manages on behalf of the French State (Major Innovation Support Program) —
— Additional proceeds will be used primarily to accelerate the development of a proprietary fermentation process to design targeted, full-ecosystem, large-scale, microbiome-based products —
Lyon, France, December 1, 2020 – MaaT Pharma announced today that the company secured an additional €7.35 million ($8.7 million) in an extension of its Series B financing round, bringing the total raised in this round to €25.35 million. The new capital from the PSIM Fund managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French State, with participation from SkyViews Life Science and Celeste Management, underscores the potential of MaaT Pharma’s microbiome restoration biotherapeutics platform and the progress the company has made towards developing drugs that harness the rich diversity of the gut microbiome to improve overall survival in blood cancers and Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD). In February, the company announced the initial closing of an €18 Million Series B Financing Round, led by US investor SymBiosis, LLC, with support from Seventure Partners, Crédit Mutuel Innovation, and Biocodex.
The final closing of the Series B financing round will primarily support the advancement of an innovative fermentation production platform for the development of next-generation, large-scale, fully controlled microbiome ecosystem therapeutics. By leveraging MaaT Pharma’s GutPrint® computational data science platform, the new industrial fermentation platform will enable to develop and manufacture both “standard” high-richness, high-diversity fermented product MaaT034, and a pipeline of indication-specific candidates. In particular, the fermentation technology supports pipeline extension towards solid tumors indications, for combination with immunotherapy. The resulting new product candidates will complement the company’s donor-derived lead products MaaT013 (enema) and MaaT033 (oral formulation) for the treatment of GvHD and liquid tumors.
The funding will also support the production of MaaT013 to meet the demand from clinicians wanting to access the product for the treatment of their GvHD patients with no other therapeutic options; this compassionate use is permitted by the French regulator under an “ATUn” program.
“Raising additional capital through an extension of our Series B is a testament to the relevance of our innovative full-ecosystem microbiome therapy approach. We are now supported by a syndicate of seven highly respected investors, enabling us to further advance and expand our portfolio with confidence. Serving patients has always been the cornerstone of our purpose and we look forward to meeting their needs through our microbiome therapeutics development and in our early-access-program,” commented Hervé Affagard, CEO and Co-founder of MaaT Pharma. “I would like to thank all of our investors for their trust and for sharing our company’s commitment to improving patients’ lives and treatment outcomes in a variety of cancer indications by restoring gut microbiome function and immune system homeostasis.”
“MaaT Pharma has developed an innovative portfolio of microbiome-based biotherapeutics that we believe offers tremendous short-term and long-term potential, addressing the needs of advanced-stage cancer patients with limited options,” commented Muriel Prudent, Senior Investment Manager at Bpifrance. “We look forward to working with MaaT Pharma’s team to expand its leadership position and contribute to advancing its innovative pipeline.”
Dr Stefan Catsicas, Managing Partner at SkyViews Life Science said: “SkyViews Life Science is delighted to join a strong group of investors collectively committed to supporting MaaT Pharma, a leader in the field of microbiome functionality, as they address severe unmet needs of cancer patients.”
“MaaT Pharma has brought together a strong team grounded in scientific and manufacturing excellence with a compelling vision for microbiome-based therapies, which convinced us to support this endeavor,” added Dimitri Boulanger, Chief Executive Officer, Celeste Management.
About MaaT Pharma
MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage company, has established the most complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis to improve survival outcomes in life-threatening diseases. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has already achieved proof of concept in acute myeloid leukemia patients and a Phase 2 clinical trial in acute GvHD is ongoing. Supporting the development and expansion of our pipeline, we have built a powerful discovery and analysis platform, GutPrint®, to evaluate drug candidates, determine novel disease targets and identify biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. Our therapeutics are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome, in liquid and oral formulations. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators to spearhead microbiome treatment integration into clinical practice.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance is the French national investment bank: it finances businesses – at every stage of their development – through loans, guarantees, equity investments and export insurances. Bpifrance also provides extrafinancial services (training, consultancy) to help entrepreneurs meet their challenges (innovation, export…). For more information, please visit: www.bpifrance.fr and presse.bpifrance.fr – Follow us on Twitter: @Bpifrance – @BpifrancePresse
