NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Enterome, a privately held biomarker development firm, has raised €5 million ($6.6 million) in a series A round of private funding, it said Thursday.
Paris-based Enterome uses a metagenomic platform to discover biomarkers for metabolic and bowel diseases. The technology was initially developed at France's Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), and the firm has exclusive access to discoveries made using the platform in selected human pathologies including type II diabetes, as well as liver and bowel diseases.
Enterome said that it plans to use the funds to validate its proprietary biomarkers and translate them into medical diagnostics, with an eye toward commercializing lab-developed tests in the US and European Union.
The round of financing was co-led by Seventure and Lundbeckfond Ventures. A previous round of financing through Seventure and INRA Transfert, which manages the technology portfolio of INRA, raised €1.5 million.
"The Series A round investors — Seventure and Lundbeckfond Ventures — were specifically attracted to Enterome due to the unique nature of its technology, the close relationship to INRA, and the opportunity to create unique biomarker diagnostic products meeting unmet medical and market needs," Pierre Belichard, CEO of Enterome, said in a statement. "Research by Enterome's scientific founders has improved understanding of the human microbiota composition to the point of now allowing development of powerful new biomarkers and associated therapeutics."