Irish-based life sciences company Malin said on Monday it has acquired a 32 per cent shareholding of US biotechnology company Artizan Biosciences.
Dublin-based Malin, which has invested more than €300 million in life sciences companies since it was established in early 2015, invested in Artizan via a founding equity round alongside Hatteras Venture Partners, a venture capital firm with which Malin has a strategic partnership.
Artizan is a newly created biotechnology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, with labs in New Haven, Connecticut, that was founded to address diseases involving the human intestinal microbiota.
Standalone business
It was spun out of Yale University and established as a standalone business in 2016. Its founders include Prof Richard Flavell, Noah Palm, PhD, and Marcel de Zoete, PhD, from Yale University.
Artizan, which aims to be a leader in the microbiota-driven inflammatory diseases space, has developed a capability of distinguishing certain pathogenic bacteria from the remainder of the intestinal microbiota.
The ability to target these specific bacteria could lead to treatment options for any number of digestive disorders as well as other diseases including obesity, autoimmune disease and a wide variety of skin, lung and central nervous system diseases.
Treatment
"Artizan's proposed approach is disruptive to current treatment and would offer new and novel therapeutic options for patients suffering from a broad array of inflammatory disorders," Adrian Howd, chief investment officer of Malin, said.
Last month Malin acquired a 33 per cent shareholding of Wren Therapeutics, a newly created biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, England. It was set up by a number of former Elan executives in 2015.
