Swiss food giant Nestlé has entered a partnership with French biotech Enterome Biosciences to develop microbiome-based diagnostics for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The Microbiome Diagnostic Partners (MDP) announced on July 11 consists of a 50/50 joint venture between the Paris-based Enterome and Nestlé Health Science, the Epalinges, Switzerland–based Nestlé subsidiary. Nestlé will invest €20 ($22.8) million in the MDP, and Paris-based Enterome will grant exclusive rights to its microbiome profiling tests in all areas except immuno-oncology. Enterome has a collaboration with New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb in this area, to identify lung cancer patients who, depending on their microbiome composition, might be sensitive to checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) (Nat. Biotechnol. 35, 5, 2017). For the new joint venture, the IBD programs will be based on Enterome's biomarker IBD110, a gut microbiome biomarker of mucosal healing (Nat. Biotechnol. 35, 9, 2017) and MET210 as a biomarker for NAFLD. In April 2016, Nestlé formed part of a $14.5-million series C round to develop Enterome's EB 8018—a novel small-molecule FimH antagonist that targets adherent invasive Escherichia coli proliferation in the gut, one of the main causes of IBD.

Nestlé gains options to exclusively license rights to commercialize the two initial programs, and Nestlé's diagnostics subsidiary, San Diego-based Prometheus Laboratories, will bring in development and commercialization expertise to MDP to develop a biomarker and diagnostic.

Also on July 11, Google-backed Cambridge, Massachusetts–based Evelo Biosciences raised a total $100 million with plans to begin five to ten clinical trials of monoclonal microbes—specific single strains of naturally occurring microbes—in 2018, followed by licensing a microbiome-based cancer immunotherapy from the University of Chicago in April 2016.