Health for Life Capital Partakes in US$13.2m Financing of Japanese Microbiome Firm

05 Jul 2017 --- Seventure’s Health for Life Capital investment vehicle has participated in a US$13.1 million financing of Japanese biotech company Anaeropharma Science, Seventure Partners announced in a press release. Anaeropharma Science, based in Tokyo, Japan, is developing novel genetically enhanced bacteria to fight tumors. 

The company’s lead product APS001F (based on obligate anaerobic bacterium Bifidobacterium longum) can only proliferate in the hypoxic core of solid tumors, where it secretes the enzyme cytosine deaminase turning a systemically administered prodrug into a cytotoxic agent, which hollows out the tumor from the inside. The company is currently conducting a Phase 1b/2a trial of APS001F in patients with advanced solid tumors in the US.

Seventure Partners invests alongside Novartis Pharma and a number of Japanese investors. This is Seventure’s first investment in a Japanese company.

“There is a huge market opportunity for novel treatments that harness the specific capabilities of microbiome-derived bacteria. Anaeropharma Science is developing a pioneering approach to the cancer therapy, which may powerfully complement other axes of modern oncology research,” says Isabelle de Cremoux, CEO and Managing Partner of Seventure Partners. “The Company’s innovative R&D is a great fit for our Health For Life Capital investment vehicle.”

Eric de La Fortelle, Venture Partner at Seventure Partners, will have a Board observer seat in the company.

In May, Seventure Partners announced that is was part of a global syndicate that made a US$26.7 million investment in Israeli microbiome therapeutics company BiomX.