Scioto Biosciences Receives $26.5 Million Series B Investment From Genome & Company

Scioto Biosciences recently announced the closing of a strategic investment of up to $26.5 million from Genome & Company and other investors to join in an upcoming tranche. Genome & Company is a leading microbiome company with headquarters in South Korea. The deal gives Genome & Co a majority stake in Scioto and expands its presence into the US.

Both companies have agreed to multilaterally cooperate on the research of new drug candidates. The funding will continue to support clinical development of Scioto’s lead drug candidate, SB-121, which targets disorders related to the gut-brain axis like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as well as disorders related to gut-injury such as Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) which affects premature infants. SB-121 is built on Scioto Biosciences’ proprietary ABT (Activated Bacterial Therapeutics) Platform.

Scioto Biosciences, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN, is primarily focused on developing new drugs targeting brain and bowel diseases, and has taken an exclusive global license of the ABT Platform, which was invented by researchers at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

“We are very much looking forward to partnering with Genome and Company to continue to develop the ABT platform. We are excited to have them as a development partner with deep microbiome expertise and better access to Asian markets,” said Joe Trebley, CEO of Scioto Biosciences.

Through the deal, Genome & Company is adding a new clinical-stage drug candidate, SB-121, to its pipeline which will follow its leading clinical candidate GEN-001 (immune-oncology), which is currently undergoing clinical trials simultaneously in the US and Korea. Through Scioto Biosciences, Genome & Company expands its global presence, now including the US, which will also support the company as a discovery center and facilitating communication with regulatory agencies such as the FDA for clinical studies.

“We are very pleased to be able to expand our microbiome drug portfolio through Scioto Biosciences, which is developing original technology with excellent scalability,” said Dr. Pae Jisoo, CEO of Genome & Company.

RM Global Partners LLC acted as Genome & Co’s advisors and Lighthouse BioPartners LLC acted as Scioto Biosciences’ advisors for this transaction.

Based in Indianapolis, Scioto Biosciences is a preclinical stage company developing innovative therapies devoted to having a transformative impact on the delivery of live bacterial therapeutics (LBTs). Scioto was founded in 2017 as a partnership between Indiana business accelerator, Monon Bioventures (MBV) and AWRI with whom the company has a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement. The Scioto Activated Bacterial Therapeutic (ABT) Platform has the potential to enhance efficacy wherever LBTs are used, such as gastrointestinal health, diabetes, neurological disorders, alternatives to in-feed antibiotics (in livestock) and others. For more information, visit http://sciotobiosciences.com/

Genome & Company is a publicly traded, clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Seongnam, Republic of Korea that focuses on discovering and developing the next waves of innovative therapeutics in immuno-oncology through diverse modalities of microbiome, novel target immune checkpoint inhibitors and fusion proteins to fulfill the unmet needs of cancer patients. For more information, visit http://genomecom.co.kr/.