DermBiont Secures $8 Million Series A Financing to Advance Skin Microbiome Therapeutics

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on June 18, biopharmaceutical company DermBiont announced the completion of an $8 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Zola Global Investors, Toba Capital, and Viking Global Investors. The proceeds will be used to accelerate clinical trials of its live bacterial product, DBI-001.

DermBiont, incubated and funded by Olive Tree Capital, was co-founded in 2017 by Dr. Karl Beutner, Dr. Robert Brucker, and Dr. Nichola Eliovits. The company is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the discovery and development of live bacterial products for the treatment of skin diseases.

DermBiont operates at the intersection of two highly dynamic fields: dermatology and the microbiome. By leveraging skin microbiome therapies, DermBiont is uncovering the root causes of skin diseases, targeting their symptoms, and seeking to transform the current paradigm of dermatological treatment.

The human microbiome is a community of microorganisms most commonly found on the epithelial surfaces of the gut, skin, respiratory tract, oral cavity, and genitalia. A healthy microbiome helps prevent bacterial and fungal infections and modulates both the adaptive and innate immune systems.

DermBiont is advancing clinical trials of its live bacterial product, DBI-001, for the treatment of fungal skin infections. DBI-001 consists of a human-derived strain of Janthinobacterium lividum formulated in a hydrogel. J. lividum is found in soil, water, and the human food chain, and is a component of the normal human skin microbiota.

In two independent laboratories, scientists applied this live bacterium once to three amphibian species to treat and prevent lethal skin fungal infections. This research was conducted jointly by Dr. Rob Brucker, Chief Scientific Officer of DermBiont, and Dr. Reid Harris, a member of its Scientific Advisory Board.

Furthermore, DermBiont possesses a discovery platform built on a library of more than 5,000 microbial strains isolated from human skin, as well as the world’s largest next-generation sequencing dataset of healthy and diseased human skin microbiomes.

Dr. Reid Harris, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, stated, “I am greatly encouraged to see DBI-001 advancing toward clinical trials.”

“DermBiont’s philosophy and approach to drug discovery and development have enabled the company to initiate clinical trials for multiple major dermatological conditions within a single year,” said Karl R. Beutne, CEO and Chief Medical Officer of DermBiont. “We are deeply grateful for the support of our investors, whose funding allows us to advance to the next phase of our research.”

Zola Global is an operations-focused family office that helps management teams build sustainable businesses across various industries worldwide.

Toba Capital was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, California, USA. It is a venture capital firm that invests in the markets for commercial applications, IT, and internet infrastructure.

Viking Global Investors, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Connecticut, USA, is a global investment firm managing over $20 billion in capital, with offices in Greenwich, New York, London, and Hong Kong.

(Compiled by: Li Chengping)