Vedanta Biosciences Granted Second U.S. Patent Covering Methods of Treating Autoimmune Disease with Therapeutics Based on Bacterial Consortia

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, August 23, 2016 — Vedanta Biosciences, pioneering the development of a novel class of therapies designed to modulate pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 9,421,230. The patent broadly covers methods of treating autoimmune disease with mixtures of Clostridium live bacterial strains and further expands Vedanta’s patent portfolio after the issuance of US 9,415,079 on August 16 and earlier issuances in Japan. The patents are exclusively licensed to Vedanta under an agreement with the University of Tokyo and provide coverage through at least 2031.

The patented technology is based on ground-breaking work by Dr. Kenya Honda, a scientific co-founder of Vedanta. Dr. Honda’s work shows that compositions of bacterial strains belonging to Clostridium clusters IV and/or XIVa may potentially be used to treat a range of autoimmune diseases, such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease or graft versus host disease.

“We believe this second U.S. patent, together with the composition of matter patent recently issued in the same family, reinforces Vedanta’s IP leadership position in the microbiome field,” said Bernat Olle, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta. “The patent broadly covers the treatment of autoimmune diseases with compositions of bacterial consortia belonging to Clostridium clusters IV and/or XIVa, and it further strengthens our ability to build value from our IP estate via internal programs and strategic alliances.”

About Vedanta

Vedanta Biosciences is pioneering development of a novel class of therapies designed to modulate pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system, with clinical trials in certain indications expected to begin in the first half of 2017. Founded by PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) and a group of world-renowned experts in immunology and microbiology, Vedanta Biosciences is a leader in the microbiome field with capabilities to discover, develop and manufacture drugs based on live commensal microbes. Leveraging its proprietary technology platform and the expertise of its team of scientific cofounders, Vedanta Biosciences has isolated a vast collection of human-associated bacterial strains and characterized how the immune system recognizes and responds to these microbes. This work has led to the identification of human commensal bacteria that induce a range of immune responses – including induction of regulatory T cells and Th17 cells, among others – as well as the characterization of novel molecular mechanisms of microbial-host communication. These advances have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals including Science, Nature (multiple), Cell and Nature Immunology. Vedanta has harnessed these biological insights as well as data from clinical translational collaborations to generate a pipeline of programs in development for infectious disease, autoimmune disease, inflammation and immune-oncology. The clinical potential of therapeutic manipulation of the microbiome has been validated by multiple randomized, controlled trials in infectious disease and inflammatory bowel disease.

Vedanta’s scientific co-founders have pioneered the fields of innate immunity, Th17 and regulatory T cell biology, and include Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov (Professor of Immunobiology at Yale), Dr. Alexander Rudensky (tri-institutional Professor at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute, the Rockefeller University and Cornell University), Dr. Dan Littman (Professor of Molecular Immunology at NYU), Dr. Brett Finlay (Professor at the University of British Columbia) and Dr. Kenya Honda (Professor, School of Medicine, Keio University).

Forward Looking Statement

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