PharmaBiome and Ferring agree cooperation

PharmaBiome and Ferring have agreed a cooperation. According to a press release, the partnership will seek to leverage the development and marketing expertise of the biopharmaceutical company Ferring, which was founded in 1950, and the technology developed since 2016 by the biotech company PharmaBiome, which is based in Schlieren in the canton of Zurich, to research, develop and produce novel, donor-independent therapies based on the microbiome, i.e. the bacteria in the intestine. As part of the agreement, Ferring enjoys exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize microbiome-based therapeutics resulting from this collaboration. No details regarding the financial aspects of this deal were disclosed.

PharmaBiome, which is headquartered at the Bio-Technopark Schlieren-Zürich, has, on the basis of two core technologies, developed a unique technology platform, NicheMap, to select bacterial strains for the design of bacterial consortia as live biotherapeutic products with defined activities. In addition, PharmaBiome’s co-cultivation approach is designed to enable rapid and scalable production.

Ferring, which focuses on reproductive medicine and microbiome-based therapies, is the first company to successfully launch a live microbiome-based therapy with FDA approval on the US market. Moreover, Ferring boasts the requisite scale and ability to drive forward clinical trials, as the company writes in the press release.

“The trust of Ferring in our translational approach is an important validation of our work and a unique opportunity to accelerate the development of our rationally designed consortia with an experienced market leader in the microbiome therapeutic field. We are thrilled about the complementary expertise between our companies and look forward to a fruitful collaboration”, as Tomas de Wouters, CEO of PharmaBiome, comments in the press release. ce/mm