Novartis backs $176M microbiome biotech fund

Novartis has stepped in to back Paris-based Seventure Partners' biotech fund focused exclusively on the emerging field of the microbiome as well as nutrition, bringing its fund to $176 million. Over the last two years Seventure has been playing angel to the microbiome field, backing Enterome, Maat pharma, Eligo bioscience, Targedys, Micropharma and others. Novartis ($NVS) is joining a group that includes Danone, Tereos, Lesaffre, Bel, Tornier, the Institut National de Recherche Agronomique, the Danish Technology Institute, and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. "Seventure Partners believes that large worldwide pharmaceutical groups are increasingly interested in the microbiome field in anticipation of finding new ways to conduct research and developing drugs with accompanying diagnostics; especially for infectious and gastrointestinal diseases, and other indications, as well as immuno-oncology approaches," said Isabelle de Cremoux, CEO and Managing Partner of Seventure. Release