TIDMPRTC
PureTech Health PLC
31 March 2016
31 March 2016
PureTech Health plc
PureTech Health Expands its Microbiome Focus with "Commense"
Targeting the Early Childhood Microbiome
Commense advances its discovery and development platform,
executes worldwide license and announces founding scientists and
advisors
PureTech Health plc ("PureTech", LSE: PRTC), a
cross-disciplinary healthcare company tackling fundamental
healthcare needs, is pleased to note that Commense, a PureTech
business focused on preventing and treating disease through
microbiome-based interventions in infancy and early childhood, has
advanced its discovery and development platform, named its founding
scientists and advisors and executed an exclusive license in the
microbiome field.
Commense expands on PureTech's focus on the microbiome,
including PureTech's Vedanta Biosciences, which is developing a
novel class of therapies designed to modulate pathways of
interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune
system.
Daphne Zohar, CEO of PureTech said: "We are excited to build on
our knowledge and network of experts in the microbiome field.
Commense is developing new microbial-derived therapies targeting
the formative years of life, a time when the microbiome plays a
crucial role."
The full text of the announcement from Commense is as
follows:
Commense Advances Microbiome Platform Targeting Early Childhood
Health
Founding scientists and advisors named and exclusive worldwide
license obtained to prevent and treat disease through
microbiome-based interventions in early childhood
Boston, Massachusetts, March 31, 2016 - Commense, focused on
preventing and treating disease through microbiome-based
interventions in infancy and early childhood, advances its
discovery and development platform, names its founding scientists
and advisors and executes an exclusive license in the microbiome
field.
"A child's early interactions with microbes can play an
essential role in health and are believed to impact the later
development of serious conditions such as asthma, food allergies,
type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, " said David Steinberg,
co-founder of Commense and Executive Vice President at PureTech.
"We are pleased to advance our work in the early childhood
microbiome with the expansion of our pipeline and the addition of
an esteemed group of advisors."
Commense's work builds on the decades of data supporting the
"hygiene hypothesis," which suggests that a lack of early childhood
exposure to key microbes increases the risk of numerous early
childhood diseases common in developed countries. Commense is
developing a pipeline of novel therapeutics for the prevention and
treatment of disease based on a deep understanding of these
human/microbe interactions and their impact on health. Supporting
this pipeline is Commense's platform to characterise and design
microbiome-based therapeutics to potentially restore these "missing
microbes," along with a suite of technologies designed to improve
measurement and diagnosis, delivery and microbial colonisation.
Exclusive Worldwide License
Commense has obtained an exclusive, worldwide license from New
York University on a key building block of its platform, an
approach focused on replenishing and bolstering the microbial
exposure that a baby experiences at birth during passage through
the birth canal. This technology is designed to enable microbial
transfer in newborns who may not receive the vaginal microbiome,
including those delivered by caesarean section (C-section). The
work supporting this technology is from the lab of Commense
co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board member Maria Gloria
Dominguez-Bello, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU
Langone Medical Centre, and was published in the February 1, 2016
issue of Nature Medicine.
"Until very recently, every surviving mammal has been delivered
through the birth canal. In C-sections, the lack of the protective
microbes with which we've co-evolved could be very important for
many conditions, including diabetes, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis
and Crohn's disease, that we now know involve the microbiome," said
Dr. Rob Knight, a coauthor of the Nature Medicine study, and a
member of Commense's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
The study demonstrated that vaginal microbial transfer could be
performed to seed newborns delivered by C-section with microbes
derived from the mother's birth canal, in a procedure mimicking
natural birth. This procedure enhanced the levels of potentially
beneficial microbes throughout the 30-day follow-up period.
Commense is extending this approach by developing microbial and
non-microbial interventions that could benefit millions of children
each year worldwide.
"These extremely exciting initial data give promise to the hope
that all newborns might receive the potential health advantages of
their mothers' beneficial microbes, in a manner reminiscent of the
now-established benefits of faecal microbial transfers for C.
difficile infections," said Dr. Dominguez-Bello. "We've been
overwhelmed by the support and positive response to the study by
mothers, physicians, and researchers."
Numerous studies have documented associations between C-sections
and increased rates of allergies, immune disorders, asthma, autism
and obesity. In the United States, about one in three babies is
delivered by C-section, and in some countries the rate of C-section
exceeds 50 percent.
Founding Scientists and Advisors
Commense was co-founded by PureTech Health ("PureTech," LSE:
PRTC) and a group of the world's leading researchers in the field
of the human microbiome and its role in infant and maternal health.
The founding scientists and advisors include:
-- Rob Knight, Ph.D., (SAB Member) - Professor in the Department
of Paediatrics and Professor Department of Computer Science and
Engineering at the University of California San Diego (UC San
Diego); Director of UC San Diego's Centre for Microbiome
Innovation; co-founder of the Earth Microbiome Project and American
Gut; pioneer of key computational and experimental techniques for
characterizing and designing complex microbial communities in
different ecosystems; author of TED book Follow Your Gut: The
Enormous Impact of Tiny Microbes;
-- Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Ph.D., (Scientific Co-Founder
and SAB Member) - Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone
Medical Centre; lead author of the Nature Medicine study and
pioneer in characterizing and understanding microbial exposures
early in life;
-- Martin J. Blaser, M.D., (Scientific Co-Founder and SAB
Member) - Professor of Microbiology, NYU Langone Medical Centre;
Director of the Human Microbiome Program; internationally
recognized for his pioneering work in discovering the progressive
loss of microbial diversity in the microbiota of people living in
developed countries and its effects on health; and author of
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fuelling Our
Modern Plagues;
-- B. Brett Finlay, Ph.D., (Scientific Co-Founder and SAB
Member) - Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the
University of British Columbia; pioneer in understanding how loss
of key microbes in children can affect disease, including atopic
diseases and allergy; and author of forthcoming book Let Them Eat
Dirt, which will explore how the microbes that inhabit our bodies
influence childhood development;
-- Joseph St. Geme III, M.D., (Advisor and SAB Member) -
Physician-in-Chief and Chairman of Paediatrics at the Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia; Professor of Paediatrics and Microbiology
at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania; and leading clinician and researcher in the area of
paediatric host-bacterial interactions; and
-- Sam Kass, (Advisor and Commense Board Member) - former Senior
Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy at the White House and former
Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move!
childhood health campaign.
"The more we learn about the microbiome, the more we realize how
fundamental it is to human health," said Dr. Blaser. "We believe
that one of the most important windows of exposure to beneficial
microbes is at birth, so Commense represents a critical step
forward for infants and mothers."
About Commense
Commense is pioneering a deep understanding of the microbiome
early in life and its fundamental role in promoting a lifetime of
health. Drawing insights from natural exposures to beneficial
microbes, Commense is developing approaches to guide the priming,
seeding, and maintaining of the microbiome in infants and children.
Co-founded by PureTech Health ("PureTech," LSE: PRTC) and working
with the world's leading microbiome scientists, physicians, and
product developers, Commense is developing a novel category of
products to address critical unmet needs in paediatric
populations.
About PureTech Health
PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) is a
cross-disciplinary healthcare company developing innovative
products that could improve the lives of patients. PureTech is
focused on areas of growing scientific and technical insights that
it believes are at an important inflection point, including the
central nervous, gastro-intestinal and immune systems, and the
interactions and signalling between them. PureTech has a pipeline
of more than 30 programs and has approximately 20 clinical studies
across its pipeline, targeting multi-billion dollar market
opportunities. PureTech's advanced programs include five with human
proof-of-concept and multiple with pivotal or registration study
readouts in the next two years. PureTech's leading team and board,
along with an advisory network of more than 60 expert
founder-scientists and advisors across multiple disciplines, gives
PureTech access to potentially ground-breaking science and
technological innovation. With healthcare undergoing major
transformation, PureTech is well positioned to develop and launch
medicines for the 21st century. For more information, visit
www.puretechhealth.com and connect with us on
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Twitter.
As at 30 June 2015, PureTech had holdings of 100% of Commense on
a diluted basis. This calculation of PureTech's holding includes
issued and outstanding shares as well as options to purchase shares
and written commitments to issue options, but excludes unallocated
shares authorized to be issued pursuant to equity incentive
plans.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains statements that are or may be
forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the
company's future prospects, developments and strategies. The
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and
are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ
materially from current expectations, including, but not limited
to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors
included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc. These
forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the
present and future business strategies of the company and the
environment in which it will operate in the future. Each
forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press
release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements,
neither the company nor any other party intends to update or revise
these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
# # #
For further information please contact:
PureTech
Julie DiCarlo, Senior Vice President,
Communications and Investor Relations +1 617 456 0032
FTI Consulting (Communications
adviser to PureTech)
+44 (0)20 3727
Ben Atwell / Matthew Cole 1000
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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