PureTech's Vedanta Biosciences Granted US Patent

RNS Number : 2344H

PureTech Health PLC

16 August 2016

 

16 August 2016

PureTech Health plc

PureTech's Vedanta Biosciences Granted U.S. Patent Broadly Covering Pharmaceutical Compositions for Microbiome Therapeutics Based on Bacterial Consortia

PureTech Health plc ("PureTech", LSE: PRTC), a cross-disciplinary biotech company developing 21^st century medicines in and at the interface of the brain, gut and immune system, is pleased to note that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 9,415,079. The patent broadly covers pharmaceutical compositions of Clostridium live bacterial strains and builds on Vedanta's patent issuances in Japan. It is exclusively licensed worldwide to Vedanta under an agreement with the University of Tokyo and provides coverage through at least 2031. The patent issuance also triggers a milestone payment of $2 million from Janssen Biotech, Inc. as part of Vedanta's ongoing collaboration for a product candidate in inflammatory bowel disease. Vedanta has a broad platform and multiple other product candidates outside of this collaboration.

Daphne Zohar, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at PureTech, said: "We believe that the issuance of this patent puts us in an intellectual property leadership position in the microbiome space. We're pleased to receive this patent with broad, fundamental claims on key compositions."

The full text of the announcement from Vedanta is as follows:

Vedanta Biosciences Granted U.S. Patent Broadly Covering Pharmaceutical Compositions for Microbiome Therapeutics Based on Bacterial Consortia

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, August 16, 2016 - Vedanta Biosciences, pioneering the development of a novel class of therapies designed to modulate pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 9,415,079. The patent broadly covers pharmaceutical compositions and mixtures of Clostridium live bacterial strains and builds on Vedanta's patent issuances in Japan. The issued patent is exclusively licensed worldwide to Vedanta under an agreement with the University of Tokyo and provides coverage through at least 2031.

The patented technology is based on ground-breaking work by Dr. Kenya Honda, a scientific co-founder of Vedanta. Dr. Honda's work provides an avenue for the treatment of a variety of diseases including immune and infectious diseases employing bacterial strains belonging to Clostridium clusters IV and/or XIVa. Clostridium bacteria include a variety of spore-forming species that can abundantly colonise the gut.

"We believe this issuance puts Vedanta in an IP leadership position in the microbiome field," said Bernat Olle, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta. "The patent has broad, fundamental claims that we believe will be important for the commercialisation of microbiome therapeutics based on bacterial consortia. We intend to continue to build value from our IP estate through our internal programs as well as alliances with pharmaceutical partners."

About Vedanta

Vedanta Biosciences is pioneering development of a novel class of therapies designed to modulate pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system, with clinical trials in certain indications expected to begin in the first half of 2017. Founded by PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) and a group of world-renowned experts in immunology and microbiology, Vedanta Biosciences is a leader in the microbiome field with capabilities to discover, develop and manufacture drugs based on live commensal microbes. Leveraging its proprietary technology platform and the expertise of its team of scientific cofounders, Vedanta Biosciences has isolated a vast collection of human-associated bacterial strains and characterised how the immune system recognises and responds to these microbes. This work has led to the identification of human commensal bacteria that induce a range of immune responses - including induction of regulatory T cells and Th17 cells, among others - as well as the characterisation of novel molecular mechanisms of microbial-host communication. These advances have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals including Science, Nature (multiple), Cell and Nature Immunology. Vedanta has harnessed these biological insights as well as data from clinical translational collaborations to generate a pipeline of programs in development for infectious disease, autoimmune disease, inflammation and immune-oncology. The clinical potential of therapeutic manipulation of the microbiome has been validated by multiple randomised, controlled trials in infectious disease and inflammatory bowel disease.

Vedanta's scientific co-founders have pioneered the fields of innate immunity, Th17 and regulatory T cell biology, and include Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov (Professor of Immunobiology at Yale), Dr. Alexander Rudensky (tri-institutional Professor at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute, the Rockefeller University and Cornell University), Dr. Dan Littman (Professor of Molecular Immunology at NYU), Dr. Brett Finlay (Professor at the University of British Columbia) and Dr. Kenya Honda (Professor, School of Medicine, Keio University).

PureTech Health plc (PRTC.L) owns 75.4% of the company on a diluted basis as of 6 June 2016. This calculation includes issued and outstanding shares as well as options to purchase shares and written commitments to issue shares or options, but excludes unallocated shares authorised to be issued pursuant to equity incentive plans.

About PureTech Health

PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) is a cross-disciplinary biotech company focused on areas of growing scientific and technical insights that it believes are at an important inflection point, including the central nervous, gastro-intestinal and immune systems, and the interactions and signalling between them. PureTech has approximately 20 clinical studies across its pipeline targeting multi-billion dollar market opportunities, including five human proof-of-concept studies and multiple pivotal or registration study readouts expected in the next two years. While inevitably some technologies will not advance to commercialisation, PureTech's approach mitigates risk as most of the cash resides on a PureTech parent company level, allowing PureTech to build value and divert cash to its most successful programmes as milestones are achieved. PureTech has over 220 patents and patent applications. PureTech's leading team and board, along with an advisory network of more than 60 expert founder-scientists and advisors across multiple disciplines, gives PureTech access to potentially ground-breaking science and technological innovation. With healthcare undergoing major transformation, PureTech believes it is well positioned to develop and launch medicines for the 21st century. For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains statements that are or may be forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the company's future prospects, developments and strategies. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from current expectations, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the present and future business strategies of the company and the environment in which it will operate in the future. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements, neither the company nor any other party intends to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Enquiries

PureTech Allison Mead, Director, Communications and Investor Relations	[phone]
FTI Consulting (Communications adviser to PureTech) Ben Atwell Matthew Cole	[phone]

 

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