BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Meeting of the microbiomes

Behind Flagship's decision to merge two immuno-microbiome portfolio companies

July 18, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

When Flagship Ventures created two immuno-microbiome companies two years ago, the biology was so new that the firm didn't fully know what it had. Now, Flagship is merging cancer-focused Evelo Biosciences Inc. and autoimmune and inflammatory play Epiva Biosciences to create a platform company that is better funded to develop a pipeline of molecules in both disease areas.

Evelo was screening for bacteria that up-regulated the immune system to treat cancer, and Epiva was looking for bacteria that had the opposite effect to treat autoimmune and inflammatory conditions...