Enterome enters microbiome-based development collaboration with AbbVie in Crohn's disease

Enterome Bioscience, a French developer of drugs and diagnostics for microbiome-related diseases, has entered into a collaborative research agreement with AbbVie.

The alliance is anchored on Enterome's proprietary metagenomic biomarker portfolio and technologies that may enable the development of novel diagnostic products to support personalised therapies and the development of new drugs in microbiome-related diseases.

The companies will initially develop non-invasive monitoring tools of the gut microbiome in Crohn's disease.

They say Enterome's expertise in the microbiome space and AbbVie's development capabilities in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) area present an opportunity to co-develop a customised solution enabling routine monitoring of Crohn's disease.

'The development of a new treatment paradigm in IBD depends on tight control that can only be achieved via accurate, routine disease activity measurement,' said Pierre Belichard, Chief Executive of Enterome.

'Access to these data may allow the treating physician to prevent symptomatic relapse through early intervention and to avoid the potential over-use of therapeutics when not necessary. The ability to accurately analyse changes in the gut microbiome provides an ideal solution for the routine monitoring of IBD and other important diseases.'

Belichard added: 'This development partnership, along with the others that we have signed in recent months, demonstrates a strong and growing interest from a broad range of healthcare companies in our microbiome-based approach to disease monitoring and management.'