Gut bacteria, used properly, can behave like a drug. Microbiotica has convinced investors to fund that theory further, raising €42M in the first close of a Series C.
British Business Bank led the round and was joined by Tencent, IP Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Flerie Invest, Seventure Partners and existing shareholders. The British clinical-stage company formulates oral precision microbiome medicines, targeting diseases where the bacteria in a patient’s gut have gone out of balance.
The clinic is the hard part
Microbiome drug development has a graveyard. Early enthusiasm collided with messy trials in ulcerative colitis and C difficile infection, and several programmes stalled because live organisms are hard to characterise, hard to standardise and hard to ship. Investors burnt once by the first wave demanded harder evidence the second time around.
Microbiotica’s approach relies on identifying which bacterial strains correlate with response and building defined consortia rather than complex faecal transplants, so regulators can see what is in the pill and in what dose.
The lead focus is inflammatory bowel disease. The economics are compelling: Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis require long treatment, respond unevenly to current biologics, and have left a queue of patients cycling through options before surgery.
British Business Bank takes the lead
The identity of the lead investor matters here. A state development bank heading a life science round signals what domestic risk capital will not do in the current market. British pension money has been slow to enter growth-stage science, and the bank has stepped into the gap repeatedly through its life-sciences vehicles.
Tencent’s presence is unusual for a UK biotech raise, and suggests interest in the data and platform rather than the antibiotic-style revenue of a single asset.
