Nestlé Lays Down €40 Million on Enterome’s Food Allergy and IBD Candidate

Paris-based Enterome announced a collaboration with Nestlé Health Science to develop EB1010, an IL-10-inducing compound designed to target food allergies and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Nestlé will provide €40 million ($41 million) upfront to get the ball rolling for Enterome’s lead preclinical candidate and to expand Enterome’s potential pipeline to include allergy-based prospects developed from its drug discovery platform. 

Harnessing an Advanced Drug Discovery Platform

Enterome discovered EB1010 using its Mimicry drug discovery platform, which scans over 20 million gut microbiome proteins to identify small proteins or peptides which might have a therapeutic effect. Researchers then evaluate the selections made by the platform to determine whether or not pursuing drug development is worth it. 

In the case of EB1010, Enterome discovered that an anti-inflammatory inducing cytokine, IL-10, may have value in treating food allergies in the gut and IBD via an orally administered pill. EB1010 is scheduled to enter clinical trials sometime next year.

In addition to the €40 million in cash and equity, Enterome is eligible to receive clinical and sales milestones for EB1010. Enterome will be responsible for leading drug discovery activities and costs up to the investigational new drug application. 

Outside of EB1010 development, Enterome announced it would add a new library to its pipeline, AllerMimics, to discover and develop new allergy-based treatment candidates. The new segment of the pipeline will complement the existing EndoMimics and OncoMimcs sections Enterome has developed using its drug discovery platform.

Related Article: Nestlé to Acquire Aimmune Therapeutics in a $2.6 Billion Merger Agreement

Adding Another Big Pharma Company to Its Partnerships

Enterome’s collaboration with Nestlé will be its third partnership with a large biotech/pharmaceutical company. The partnership with Nestlé brings Enterome’s total raised capital to €116 million. 

The majority of Enterome’s internal development programs are focused on oncology treatments. The company has four oncology candidates, one of which, EO2401, is being developed in collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb. BMS and Enterome have a long-standing relationship dating back to 2016. 

Enterome also partnered with Takeda to develop a Crohn’s disease therapy currently in Phase 2 trials. The collaboration began in 2018 when Takeda paid $50 million to develop EB8018 (now called TAK018). 

For Nestlé, €40 million seems like a drop in the ocean after it acquired food allergy-based company Aimmune for $2.1 billion in 2020. Since then, Nestlé laid down $175 million upfront in 2021 in a potential $525 million deal to license Seres Therapeutics’ investigational microbiome therapeutic candidate, SER-109.inflammatory bowel disease

With an increasing number of companies developing drug discovery platforms each year, Enterome’s appears to be very promising, bolstered by the recent deal with Nestlé. Enterome’s Mimicry platform and its various drug development programs make it a company worth looking out for going forward. 

Author

Reed Slater