Lesaffre makes US$17.5 million investment in Intralytix

25 Jul 2017 --- Intralytix has received US$17.5 million in new equity funding from Lesaffre, a French family group. This investment marks the beginning of a close collaboration between both companies to develop and commercialize bacteriophage-based products, for various benefits in human health and in other areas of mutual interest. The size of Lesaffre’s stake in Intralytix as a result of this investment was not disclosed.

As a global key player in yeasts and fermentation, Lesaffre designs, manufactures and markets innovative solutions for Baking, Food taste & pleasure, Health care and Biotechnology. This new investment is perfectly in line with Lesaffre’s ongoing expansion strategy in nutrition and health. In 2015, Lesaffre had already announced the investment in Gnosis, an Italian company specialized in ingredients for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetic and veterinary industries.

Intralytix, Inc. is a privately-held company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company is the world’s leader in bacteriophage technology, and was the first company in the world to receive FDA-approval for a phage-based product for food safety applications. Intralytix currently has the largest portfolio in the world of phage-based products in commercial markets.

The company holds several bacteriophage technology-related patents, including two US patents (and additional patents pending) for fine-tuning human or animal microbiome by using bacteriophages to reduce or eliminate bacterial colonization.

Alexander Sulakvelidze, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Intralytix commented: “We are delighted to have partnered with Lesaffre. This investment solidifies Intralytix’s position as the leader in the field of bacteriophage research and commercialization, and allows us to strengthen the company infrastructure by enhancing our already superb R&D programs, adding high throughput robotic technologies, and expanding our state-of-the-art phage production capabilities.”

Antoine Baule, Lesaffre’s CEO, added “We believe that bacteriophages technology, mastered by Intralytix, offers an exciting platform for developing various antimicrobial products that will help reduce antibiotic resistance. Intralytix is the leader in this field, and we look forward to working with their teams, developing new phage-based products and technologies and making them available to benefit customers worldwide.”

Baule told NutritionInsight: “The areas for potential applications are very broad, mostly in human and animal Nutrition and Health.”

"We are pleased to partner with Lesaffre and to engage in the development of a series of novel bacteriophage-based products" remarked John Woloszyn, Intralytix's CEO. "Phage-based products, when properly formulated and manufactured, provide a safe, effective and all-natural way to help maintain healthy microbiota. We believe that our collaboration with Lesaffre will significantly enhance and expedite product development and will ultimately benefit hundreds of thousands of people worldwide".

Baule told NutritionInsight that he has been happy the investment in Gnosis so far and that development is happening according to plan.

In terms of R&D work going forward at Lesaffre within the biotechnology space, he concluded: “We are working on different microorganisms and metabolites, targeting our major applications fields in nutrition and health and bakery.”

By Robin Wyers

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