Microbiotica raises £36m Series C to fund Phase 2 UC trial of MB310
Microbiotica has announced the first close of a £36 million ($48 million) Series C financing round to advance its lead candidate, MB310, into Phase 2 clinical development for ulcerative colitis. The round was led by the British Business Bank, with participation from Tencent, IP Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Flerie Invest, and Seventure Partners. All existing Series B investors also participated.
MB310 is a once-daily oral capsule containing a defined consortium of eight live gut commensal bacterial strains. The candidate is designed to promote repair of the gut epithelial barrier and deliver anti-inflammatory effects. Positive results from the COMPOSER-1 Phase 1b study, which met both its primary and secondary endpoints, showed statistically significant improvements in clinical remission versus placebo, alongside improvements in histological measures and markers of intestinal barrier integrity. The forthcoming randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial aims to confirm those findings in a larger patient population.
The unmet need in ulcerative colitis
Ulcerative colitis is the most common form of inflammatory bowel disease, affecting up to five million people globally. Despite a crowded treatment landscape that includes aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, biologics such as vedolizumab and ustekinumab, and small-molecule JAK inhibitors, a substantial proportion of patients fail to achieve or sustain remission. That persistent gap has kept the field active: several microbiome-focused companies, including Ferring Pharmaceuticals with its approved FMT-derived product Rebyota in the US, and a number of earlier-stage UK and European spinouts, are pursuing live biotherapeutic products as a distinct therapeutic class. Microbiotica's differentiated angle is the precision selection of bacterial strains using genomic and bioinformatic analysis of clinical trial datasets, rather than broad donor-derived approaches.
Chief executive Tim Sharpington said the financing reflects progress in "translating our powerful genomics-driven microbiome platform into clinical-stage products, alongside developing a scalable and cost-effective manufacturing process," pointing to the Phase 1b data for MB310 and the company's immuno-oncology programme as dual validation of the platform.
Platform breadth and partnerships
Microbiotica was spun out of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in 2016 and combines a large microbial culture collection, a proprietary human Reference Genome Database, bioinformatics, and machine learning. The company has established research and development partnerships with MSD, Genentech, Cancer Research UK, the University of Adelaide, and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, giving the platform reach across both gastrointestinal and oncology indications.
The second pipeline asset, MB097, is being evaluated in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for advanced melanoma in the ongoing Phase 1b MELODY-1 study. Microbiotica said emerging data from that study have been encouraging, though it did not release specific figures in this announcement.
The Series C positions Microbiotica to generate Phase 2 efficacy and safety data that will be critical for any future partnering or licensing discussions. In a sector where live biotherapeutic products are still establishing regulatory precedent with both the FDA and EMA, the quality and scale of the Phase 2 dataset is likely to be determinative for commercial outcomes. Investors and potential partners will watch closely for the trial design, primary endpoints, and enrolment timelines as the next near-term milestones.