Biomica Announces $20 Million Financing Led by Shanghai Biomedical Fund to Advance Live Biotherapeutic Pipeline

VCBeat has learned that Israeli innovative drug startup Biomica recently announced the completion of a new round of financing, which was jointly invested by the Shanghai Biomedical Industry Fund and Evogene, Biomica’s parent company.

Biomica is a clinical-stage innovative pharmaceutical company that leverages a high-resolution computational platform for microbial genomics analysis to rationally design microbial strain combinations, thereby developing novel formulated microbiome therapeutics.Parent company Evogene (Nasdaq: EVGN, TASE: EVGN) is Israel’s leading publicly traded computational biology enterprise, whose advanced AI engine provides robust support for Biomica’s microbiome-based drug development.

Biomica focuses onTumor Immunology, Microbiota-Associated Gastrointestinal (GI) Diseases, and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteriadevelopment of innovative therapies. The funds raised in this round will be primarily used to: complete the Phase I clinical study of the tumor immunology project BMC128 and advance it to Phase II clinical trials; complete and scale up GMP manufacturing for the BMC333 project targeting inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and prepare for the Phase I clinical trial of BMC333; and advance other R&D initiatives.

Biomica CEO Dr. Elran Haberstated, “We extend our gratitude to the Shanghai Biopharmaceutical Industry Fund and our existing shareholders for their recognition and support! Over the past year, Biomica has made significant progress, successfully initiating the Phase I clinical trial of BMC128 for tumor immunotherapy and enrolling the first patient, while steadily advancing the development of therapies for infectious diseases and gastrointestinal disorders. We look forward to working closely with our shareholders to achieve milestone progress in the coming years.”

Bao Jing, Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and Senior Scientific Advisor to the Shanghai Biomedical Fund“Live biotherapeutic drugs hold significant market potential and are poised to benefit a large number of patients in China. The Shanghai Biomedical Fund recognizes the development potential of the live biotherapeutic sector and believes that, following the recent FDA approval of the first Live Biotherapeutic Product (LBP), more related products will gain regulatory approval in the future. The parties involved in this round of investment bring complementary strengths: Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, as a limited partner (LP) in the Shanghai Biomedical Fund, is a leading enterprise in China’s live biotherapeutic industry; Biomica and Evogene have extensive expertise in this field and have already advanced their first pipeline candidate into clinical stages. Led by the Shanghai Biomedical Fund, this financing round paves the way for meaningful and highly productive collaboration among the Shanghai Biomedical Fund, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, and Biomica.”

Ofer Haviv, Chairman of Biomica and President and CEO of Evogene“We are deeply honored by the support from the Shanghai Biomedical Fund, which has further strengthened our confidence in Biomica’s future potential. This collaboration serves as further validation that establishing and investing in Biomica was a successful strategy, one that is poised to yield significant results.”