mbiomics secures € 30 million for microbiome-based therapeutics

Munich — The Munich-based Tech­Bio company mbio­mics has successfully expan­ded its Series A finan­cing round to a total of 30 million euros. The company intends to use the capi­tal to drive forward the clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment of its lead candi­date and further expand its scalable plat­form for micro­­biome-based thera­pies. Inves­tors include the exis­ting inves­tors MIG Fonds and Bayern Kapital. 

mbio­mics GmbH from Munich/Neuried has comple­ted the third closing of its Series A finan­cing round of 12 million euros, raising a total of 30 million euros.

The company plans to use the addi­tio­nal funds to further expand its precli­ni­cal data packa­ges in prepa­ra­tion for an IND submis­sion and to acce­le­rate GMP deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion. The focus will be on prepa­ring the clini­cal trial of the lead candi­date MBX-116, which is to be used as a co-therapy with immune check­point inhi­bi­tors in advan­ced mela­n­oma. The start of a phase 1b trial is plan­ned for 2027. 

mbio­mics deve­lops so-called Live Biothe­ra­peu­tic Products (LBPs) — oral thera­peu­tics based on live bacte­rial strains. The aim is to harness the func­tional and meta­bo­lic poten­tial of the gut micro­biome in a stan­dar­di­zed, phar­maceu­ti­cal format. While fecal micro­biota trans­plants have alre­ady shown the effi­cacy of micro­­biome-based approa­ches, they are conside­red diffi­cult to scale up. This is where mbio­mics comes in with a proprie­tary tech­no­logy plat­form that enables the design, analy­sis and produc­tion of complex micro­bial consortia. 

The plat­form combi­nes AI- and machine lear­­ning-based methods with proprie­tary analy­sis tech­no­lo­gies and scalable co-culti­­va­­tion and scree­ning approa­ches. In this way, the company aims to advance the deve­lo­p­ment of defi­ned micro­bial commu­ni­ties and use them speci­fi­cally for thera­peu­tic applications. 

“While the clini­cal poten­tial of the gut micro­biome is well unders­tood, the deve­lo­p­ment of micro­­biome-based thera­peu­tics into scalable products has been a signi­fi­cant tech­ni­cal chall­enge. At mbio­mics, we are solving this problem by buil­ding a complete tech­no­logy stack for the design, analy­sis, scree­ning and manu­fac­tu­ring of complex micro­bial consor­tia. Our focus is now on brin­ging our lead candi­date MBX-116 into clini­cal trials,” says Dr. Johan­nes B. Wöhr­stein, CEO and Co-Foun­­der of mbio­mics.

In addi­tion to onco­logy, mbio­mics is working on a broa­der pipe­line of micro­­biome-based thera­peu­tics. The aim is to address other indi­ca­ti­ons in which the gut micro­biome plays a central role, inclu­ding auto­im­mune and neuro­de­ge­nera­tive diseases.