CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 12, 2016--
Seres Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRB), a leading microbiome
therapeutics platform company, and Emulate, Inc., a private company
commercializing the Organs-on-Chips technology, today announced a new
collaboration. Under the terms of the agreement, Seres and Emulate will
work to further advance Emulate’s Intestine-Chip platform, a
micro-engineered, living-tissue-based system that models the human
intestine. Seres intends to use the technology to identify novel
bacteria compositions with therapeutic potential.
“Emulate has developed a highly innovative technology platform
consisting of multiple human cell types that may be far more accurate in
recreating human gastrointestinal tissue and its interaction with the
microbiome than conventional cell culture approaches,” said David Cook,
Ph.D., Executive Vice President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer of
Seres. “We expect Emulate’s technology platform will enhance our
approach for drug discovery and accelerate our efforts to identify
promising new microbiome therapeutic candidates for inflammatory bowel
disease, other autoimmune or immunological conditions, infectious
diseases, and other serious disease states, which may have a microbiome
therapeutic based solution.”
“We are extremely pleased to work with Seres, a leader in the
development of microbiome therapeutics, and apply our Organs-on-Chips
technology to enhance drug discovery in an emerging field, such as the
microbiome,” said James Coon, Chief Executive Officer of Emulate. “The
microbiome represents a critically important new area of medicine, and
our ‘Intestine-Chip’ is remarkably well suited to evaluate complex
biological mechanisms, such as the impact of bacterial compositions on
the integrity of the gut barrier and mechanisms of healing in response
to inflammation. By combining Emulate’s human-relevant Organs-on-Chips
technology with the therapeutic expertise from biopharmaceutical leaders
such as Seres, Emulate aims to meaningfully contribute to improving
human health.”
About Seres Therapeutics
Seres Therapeutics, Inc. is a leading microbiome therapeutics platform
company developing a novel class of biological drugs that are designed
to treat disease by restoring the function of a dysbiotic microbiome,
where the natural state of bacterial diversity and function is
imbalanced. Seres’ most advanced program, SER-109, has successfully
completed a Phase 1b/2 study demonstrating a clinical benefit in
patients with recurring Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and
is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 study in recurring CDI. The
FDA has granted SER-109 Orphan Drug, as well as Breakthrough Therapy,
designations. Seres’ second clinical candidate, SER-287, is being
evaluated in a Phase 1b study in patients with mild-to-moderate
ulcerative colitis (UC). Seres is also developing SER-262, the first
ever synthetic microbiome therapeutic candidate, in a Phase 1b study in
patients with primary CDI. For more information, please visit
www.serestherapeutics.com. Follow us on Twitter @SeresTx.
About Emulate, Inc.
Emulate Inc. is a privately held company that creates living products
for understanding how diseases, medicines, chemicals, and foods affect
human health. Our Human Emulation System sets a new standard for
recreating true-to-life human biology and is being used to advance
product innovation, design, and safety across a range of applications
including drug development, agriculture, cosmetics, food, and
chemical-based consumer products. Emulate continues to develop a wide
range of Organ-Chips and disease models through collaborations with
industry partners and internal R&D programs. Emulate is also working
with clinical partners to produce Organ-Chips personalized with an
individual patient’s stem cells, for applications in precision medicine
and personalized health. Our founding team pioneered the Organs-on-Chips
technology at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
at Harvard University. Emulate holds the worldwide exclusive license
from Harvard University to a robust and broad intellectual property
portfolio for the Organs-on-Chips technology and related systems.
About Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory bowel disease is a group of inflammatory conditions with
chronic or recurring immune response and inflammation of the
gastrointestinal tract. The two most common inflammatory bowel diseases
are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Inflammation affects the
entire digestive tract in Crohn’s disease and only the large intestine
in ulcerative colitis. Both illnesses are characterized by an abnormal
response of the body’s immune system.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All
statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters
of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements,
including without limitation statements regarding the potential utility
of Emulate’s technology to identify promising new microbiome therapeutic
candidates.
These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current
expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important
factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements
to be materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements,
including, but not limited to, the following: we have incurred
significant losses, are not currently profitable and may never become
profitable; our need for additional funding, which may not be available;
our limited operating history; the unpredictable nature of our
development efforts for marketable drugs; the unproven approach to
therapeutic intervention of our microbiome therapeutics; the lengthy and
expensive process of clinical drug development, which has an uncertain
outcome; potential delays in enrollment of patients which could affect
the receipt of necessary regulatory approvals; potential delays in
regulatory approval, which would impact the ability to commercialize our
product candidates and affect our ability to generate revenue; our
reliance on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and the
potential for those third parties to not perform satisfactorily; our
reliance on third parties to manufacture our product candidates, which
may delay, prevent or impair our development and commercialization
efforts; our lack of experience in manufacturing our product candidates;
potential competition from biosimilars; failure to obtain marketing
approval internationally; post-marketing restrictions or withdrawal from
the market; anti-kickback, fraud, abuse, and other healthcare laws and
regulations exposing us to potential criminal sanctions; protection of
our proprietary technology; protection of the confidentiality of our
trade secrets; changes in United States patent law; potential lawsuits
for infringement of third-party intellectual property; our patents being
found invalid or unenforceable; claims challenging the inventorship or
ownership of our patents and other intellectual property; claims
asserting that we or our employees misappropriated a third-party’s
intellectual property or otherwise claiming ownership of what we regard
as our intellectual property; adequate protection of our trademarks;
ability to attract and retain key executives; potential system failures;
the price of our common stock may fluctuate substantially; a significant
portion of our total outstanding shares are eligible to be sold into the
market; and we may be subject to securities class action litigation.
These and other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk
Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, or SEC, on March 14, 2016 and our other reports
filed with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from
those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press
release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s
estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to
update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we
disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our
views to change. These forward-looking statements should not be relied
upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of
this press release.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160712005496/en/
Source: Seres Therapeutics
IR and PR Contact:
Seres
Therapeutics
Carlo Tanzi, Ph.D., 617-203-3467
Head of Investor
Relations and Corporate Communications
Ctanzi@serestherapeutics.com
or
PR
Contact:
Emulate
Kathryn Morris, 845-635-9828
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com