Novome Biotechnologies Raises $43.5 Million Series B Financing to Advance its Pipeline of Therapeutically Engineered Microbes

Novome Biotechnologies, Inc., a biotechnology company engineering first-in-class, living medicines for chronic diseases, announced the close of a $43.5 million Series B financing. The financing was led by Tencent, and includes new investors University of Minnesota, Navian Investments, Colorcon Ventures and Touchdown Ventures. Existing investors DCVC Bio, 5AM Ventures, Alta Partners and Alexandria Venture Investments also participated in the financing.

The proceeds will be used to advance both Novome’s clinical hyperoxaluria candidate, NOV-001, through an ongoing Phase 2a clinical trial and multiple Genetically Engineered Microbial Medicines (GEMMs) candidates for the potential treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); candidates are either fully owned by Novome or part of a previously announced collaboration with Genentech.

“Our team has made tremendous progress this year, including initiation of the Phase 2a portion of the enteric hyperoxaluria clinical trial of NOV-001 and advancing our platform capabilities, most notably developing the ability for our oral GEMMs to deliver high amounts of therapeutic proteins to the gastrointestinal tract through continuous, controlled secretion,” said Blake Wise, CEO of Novome. “Novome’s recent accomplishments and this new funding should further advance and validate our platform’s capabilities and unlock additional pipeline opportunities. I am grateful for the strong support of new and current investors who share our vision of developing first-in-class therapeutically engineered gut microbes.”

The ongoing Phase 2a clinical trial is the second stage of the NOV-001 Phase 1/2a program. Results from the Phase 1 stage were reported late last year and demonstrated the ability to safely colonize the human gut with a therapeutically engineered microbe and control its abundance via once-daily dosing of a prebiotic control molecule. The Phase 2a stage of the clinical trial will study the safety, tolerability and early efficacy of NOV-001 in patients with enteric hyperoxaluria.