BiomX boosts microbiome discovery and development with RondinX deal

Israel-based microbiome firm BiomX says the acquisition of RondinX will fortify the company’s bacterial target discovery capabilities and supports its product development pipeline.

The deal to buy RondinX for an undisclosed fee will expand BiomX’s therapeutic pipeline with novel microbial targets for a chronic liver disease.

The microbiome drug discovery company is developing customised phage therapies that target and destroy harmful bacteria in chronic diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cancer.

Jonathan Solomon, CEO of BiomX, noted that RondinX has developed a ‘superior computational platform’ that provides “an accurate picture of the residing bacterial strains present in the microbiome samples of large cohorts of patients as well as their growth dynamics.”

While the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, it was announced that the deal was in parallel with San Francisco-based angel investment from 8VC.

The CEO welcomed 8VC as the latest investor in BiomX – which raised €24 million in series A financing earlier this year, with investments from multiple international funds and companies including Takeda Ventures, Johnson and Johnson Development Corporation, Venture Investor Orbimed and Seventure’s Health For Life Capital fund.

"This merger of capabilities brings BiomX's target discovery capabilities to the forefront of microbiome analysis, and at the same time supports the development of our lead inflammatory bowel disease and cancer products,” said Solomon.

IPA World Congress + Probiota 2018​​

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The rapidly evolving universe of probiotics, prebiotics and the microbiome will be discussed in-depth at the upcoming IPA World Congress + Probiota 2018 in Barcelona on February 7-9.

From microbiome advances, to start-up game changers, market stats, crucial clinical science and regulatory knowledge, this is a congressional must-have.

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