Synlogic recently announced the establishment of a global Research and Development collaboration with AbbVie to develop innovative medicines for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), taking advantage of Synlogic’s proprietary approach for a new class of synthetic biotic medicines powering the microbiome.
As a privately-held biopharma based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Synlogic is advancing the development of a novel class of therapeutics called synthetic biotics. These synthetic biotics are produced from natural probiotic bacteria that are engineered to work in the gut microbiome and carry out specific metabolic transformations to correct any metabolic dysregulation across the body that may cause disease. This innovative approach allows the transformation of a corrected and improved metabolic function from a disease organ by targeting the microbiome.
Synlogic will be responsible for the discovery, characterization, and optimization of the synthetic biotics-based drug candidates, through a Research and Development program that covers a series of effectors able to modulate IBD pathophysiology. Special emphasis will be given to ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
“Synlogic’s innovative approach to targeting the microbiome offers a new way to address inflammatory bowel disease,” AbbVie’s vice-president of pharmaceutical discovery, Jim Sullivan, said in a press release. “AbbVie is committed to collaborating with scientific leaders with new technologies and therapeutic advances that complement AbbVie’s internal expertise and share our commitment to advancing the standard of care for patients.”
One of the collaboration goals between AbbVie and Synlogic is to combine the expertise in metabolic and inflammatory diseases of their platforms to develop and explore novel, oral probiotic drug candidates into the clinic. The drug candidate will be designed with synthetic programmable genetic circuits that can mix with the microbiomes.
Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will be responsible for regulatory filings, clinical development, and global marketing of the resulting products.
“We are delighted to be working with AbbVie, an innovative leader in treating inflammation and autoimmune diseases. We envision the potential for strong synergy from the combination of AbbVie’s metabolic and inflammation expertise with our novel therapeutic approach of precision programing in the microbiome, opening new ways to create synthetic biotics to address the significant unmet needs for people with IBD,” said Synlogic’s CEO, Jose-Carlos Gutiérrez-Ramos.
“This partnership with AbbVie is a part of our overall strategy for enabling the broad potential of our synthetic biotics platform by forging partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology leaders to pursue major disease indications affecting millions of patients, while simultaneously accelerating Synlogic’s internal pipeline in rare orphan diseases toward the clinic,” Gutiérrez-Ramos said.