BioPharma

Immuno-microbiome companies Evelo Biosciences and Epiva Biosciences merge

“It was driven by the recognition that fundamentally the biological platform for both companies was a mirror image. We both independently uncovered the biology of the immune-microbiome.”

Dividing cancer cell through a scanning electron micrograph

Dividing cancer cell through a scanning electron micrograph

Two Cambridge, Massachusetts-based bioscience research firms announced their merger Tuesday, creating an immuno-microbiome company targeting cancer, auto-immune, allergy and inflammatory diseases.

Evelo Biosciences and Epiva Biosciences, primarily funded by Cambridge-based Flagship Ventures, will keep the name Evelo Biosciences and will be led by Simba Gill, Evelo’s current president and CEO. Flagship Ventures CEO Noubar Afeyan will chair the combined entity.

Gill said the two firms have already consolidated into one location in Cambridge, where Evelo employs 42 from the combined firms and plans to add more staff.

“The rationale for combining the two companies was positive growth,” Gill explained. “It was driven by the recognition that fundamentally the biological platform for both companies was a mirror image. We both independently uncovered the biology of the immune-microbiome.”

He said the immune-microbiome and the body’s immune system act in concert, with the microbiome governing immune response.

Both companies were founded in 2014 and each worked independently, discovering similar processes while pursuing therapeutic treatments for different diseases. Evelo was seeking to create cancer therapies and studied immune responses to tumors, while Epiva explored treatments for allergy, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Gill said the complementary intellectual property strengthens the company’s platform for immune-microbiome biology for multiple therapeutic applications.

“This merger broadens and accelerates our ability as a combined company to advance several products in several disease areas,” he said, “as well as consolidating our platform leadership in what we see as a transformative platform for medicine. There is a nice complementarity between our organizational skill sets and resources. We are combining two very strong organizations with minimal redundancies.”

As both companies are privately owned, Gill would not disclose financial specifics of the deal, but said the merger “creates the definitive leader in the field of immuno-microbiomes, one of the most promising fields in medical research.”

He said the pharmaceutical industry should note that the combined firms have uncovered the ability of the microbiome to specifically modulate immunotherapy.

“This is an important new modality that will extend the progress made with new therapeutics in many disease areas,” Gill said.

“The immune system functions in the context of its interactions with the microbiome, and vice versa. Deciphering these interactions presents significant opportunities to develop new medicines for patients across multiple disease areas, including next-wave cancer immunotherapy and treatment for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases,” said Evelo Chairman Afeyan.

Gill said the merger “will dramatically improve outcomes for patients in need of important new medicines. We believe and hope that through focusing on immune-microbiomes we can dramatically improve therapies, outcomes, survival and long-term cures.”

The companies hold a combined 50 patents and applications. Flagship Ventures has invested about $40 million and said it plans additional cash infusions to accelerate Evelo’s rapid growth.

Photo: Evelo Biosciences

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