Arranta Bio Announces Addition of Shailesh Maingi to its Board as an Independent Director

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Arranta Bio (“Arranta”), the leading microbiome contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), today announced the addition of Shailesh Maingi to Arranta’s board as an Independent Director.

Shailesh Maingi is the founder and CEO of Kineticos Life Sciences, a boutique advisory focused on strategy, licensing and commercial product launch that he established in 2007. In 2019 he founded the Kineticos Disruptor Fund, which launches and funds early-stage biotech companies focused on oncology and therapies for neurodegenerative and rare diseases. The Kineticos Disruptor Fund has recently launched Inceptor Bio, a biotech incubator/accelerator hub.

Shailesh has served on the board of directors of a number of biotech companies, including Gallus Biopharmaceuticals, a biologics CDMO, and Locus Biosciences, a CRISPR gene editing start-up. Additionally, Shailesh founded InVincible Cancer Research Fund, a non-profit supporting cancer research. Shailesh earned a B.S. in Chemistry from UNC, Chapel Hill and an MBA from Golden Gate University, and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Having known Shailesh for 10 years, I am excited to have him bring his broad industry knowledge, sharp intellect and strategic expertise to our board of directors as we build the leading microbiome CDMO,” said Mark Bamforth, president and CEO at Arranta, in a welcome announcement.

“I am delighted to partner with Mark, the board, and the team at Arranta Bio, following his success with Brammer Bio and Gallus Biopharmaceuticals. This is an exciting time for the microbiome sector which is poised to deliver meaningful products that improve healthcare. I look forward to supporting Arranta Bio’s leading role in serving this field,” Shailesh Maingi said.

Almost 200 companies are actively exploring the linkage between diseases and the microbiome – millions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that live inside and on the human body – in order to identify therapeutic targets. Scientists have called it the second genome; in fact, the number of genes in the microbes making up one person’s microbiome is estimated to be at least 200 times the number in the human genome.

In the past decade, the industry has experienced a rapid acceleration in scientific understanding of the composition and functions of gut microbiota. Arranta is proud to be the leading CDMO focused on supporting the supply needs of these innovator companies.

actALIVE™ is a registered trademark of Arranta Bio.

About Arranta Bio
Founded in 2019, Arranta Bio is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specifically established to focus on serving companies seeking to develop and commercialize therapies targeting the human microbiome. In November 2019, Arranta Bio acquired Captozyme™ – the leader in process development and clinical contract manufacturing for microbiome pioneers – whose experienced team has worked with and developed processes for over 135 different species spanning 85 different genera of live biotherapeutics since 2009. Headed by a management team and technical experts with a proven track record in both process development and contract manufacturing through fermentation to lyophilization and encapsulation of live biopharmaceuticals, Arranta Bio offers the knowledge and resources necessary to help clients develop and manufacture promising new microbiome therapies to meet the needs of patients. Additional information about Arranta Bio is available at www.arrantabio.com. Enquiries can be sent to info@arrantabio.com.  

About Ampersand Capital Partners
Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle market private equity firm dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston, MA and Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ampersand leverages a unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of its core healthcare sectors, including Avista Pharma Solutions, Brammer Bio, Confluent Medical, Genewiz, Genoptix, Talecris Biotherapeutics, and Viracor-IBT Laboratories. Additional information about Ampersand is available at www.ampersandcapital.com  

Arranta Bio Announces Completion of its Microbiome Process Development Lab Expansion and Commitment to Additional Early Clinical GMP Capacity

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Arranta Bio (“Arranta”), the leading microbiome contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), today announced the completion of its microbiome process development lab expansion project and a commitment to add additional early- clinical GMP capacity at its Center of Excellence for Microbiome Process Development and Early Clinical Supply.

Arranta has completed the expansion of purpose-built microbiome process development lab in a new dedicated building, which creates capacity for up to 45 process development scientists at its Gainesville, Florida site. Dr. Aaron Cowley, Chief Scientific Officer at Arranta and the founder of Arranta’s legacy company said, “These laboratories will allow Arranta Bio to apply our 11 years of deep experience in developing processes for microbiome products to meet the needs of an increasing number of client programs. Our proprietary actALIVE™ program provides the fastest path to the clinic, from project start to IND submission in nine months, thus allowing clients to initiate proof of concept clinical trials on an accelerated timeline.”

As part of this commitment to expand process development and early clinical GMP capacity in the USA, Arranta Bio has completed designs for and is now executing the next phase of expansion of the facility, which will include three GMP drug substance suites and a GMP drug product suite with flexible capacity to meet a range of clinical supply needs. This capacity will be installed and operational by the end of 2020.

Mark Bamforth, President and CEO at Arranta Bio, said, “As an essential business, we are pleased that we have been able to safely continue our work to support clients while expanding to meet longer-term needs during this challenging period. We previously announced a $100M investment in building capacity to support microbiome pioneers. In addition to our expansion in Florida, we have maintained progress on our late stage clinical/commercial facility build-out in Watertown, Massachusetts, which is on schedule to be completed in Q4 of 2020. We are grateful to all of our employees and contractors who have safely kept our plans on track as we build the best-in-class microbiome CDMO.”

Almost 200 companies are actively exploring the linkage between diseases and the microbiome

– millions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that live inside and on the human body – in order to identify therapeutic targets. Scientists have called it the second genome and, in fact, the number of genes in the microbes making up one person’s microbiome is estimated to be at least 200 times the number in the human genome.

Over the past decade, the industry has experienced a rapid acceleration in scientific understanding of the composition and functions of the gut microbiota. Arranta is proud to be the leading CDMO focused on supporting the supply needs of these innovator companies.

actALIVE™ is a registered trademark of Arranta Bio.

Arranta Bio announces key leadership additions of Chief Operations Officer and SVP of Business Development as it commits to a $100M investment in building end-to-end microbiome capacity

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Watertown, MA – January 28, 2020: Arranta Bio (“Arranta”), the leading microbiome contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced today the strengthening of its senior leadership team with the addition of David Stevens as Chief Operations Officer and Jason Rahal as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Arranta has committed $100M to build end-to-end capacity as the first dedicated microbiome CDMO.

As Chief Operations Officer, Dave will be responsible for driving the continued growth of Arranta’s operations, including the ongoing expansion of the company’s Microbiome process development center of excellence in Gainesville, FL as well as operationalizing Arranta’s new best-in-class GMP facility in Watertown, MA.  He is an accomplished business leader with a demonstrated track record of success within the contract development and manufacturing services industry.

Dave brings over 20 years of broad operational and commercial experience in the CRO and CDMO sectors. Most recently, Dave served as the Senior Vice President & Head of AMRI’s Drug Product business unit where he had responsibility for sales and operations. During his tenure, he led the division through a period of significant growth and capacity expansion. Prior to that, Dave held roles of increasing responsibility at Aptuit and Charles River Laboratories in the UK, Italy and USA. Dave holds an MBA in strategy, finance and marketing from the University of Edinburgh and an undergraduate degree in Business.

Jason Rahal has over 25 years of experience in biotechnology. Prior to joining Arranta as SVP of Business Development, Jason was a member of the senior management team at Cobra Biologics, a CDMO providing ATMP services including Live Biotherapeutic Products (LBPs) with facilities in the United Kingdom and Sweden. Jason initially joined Cobra as VP Business Development in 2002, as the first US based employee to establish the company’s presence in North America, he was promoted to SVP Business Development in 2006.

Prior to Cobra, Jason worked at Excell Biotech, a biologics CDMO based in Edinburgh, Scotland and Stratagene Cloning Systems based in La Jolla, CA in various business development and sales positions. Jason has a strong background in molecular and cell biology, beginning his career at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL managing a molecular endocrinology laboratory with several peer reviewed publications. Jason holds a BA in Biology and Studio Art from Knox College.

“I am delighted to have two experienced leaders join Arranta Bio’s senior team as we continue to build out our organization and invest in facilities as the leading end-to-end dedicated CDMO supporting microbiome pioneers with our services” said Mark Bamforth, President & CEO of Arranta.

Almost 200 companies are actively exploring the linkage between diseases and the microbiome – millions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that live inside and on the human body – in order to identify therapeutic targets. Scientists have called it the second genome, and in fact, the number of genes in the microbes making up one person’s microbiome is estimated to be at least 200 times the number in the human genome.

Over the last decade, there has been rapid acceleration in scientific understanding of the composition and functions of the gut microbiota. Arranta is proud to be the leading CDMO focused on supporting the supply needs of these innovators.

About Arranta Bio

Founded in 2019, Arranta Bio is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specifically established to focus on serving companies seeking to develop and commercialize therapies targeting the human microbiome. Arranta Bio acquired CaptozymeTM – the leader in process development and clinical contract manufacturing for microbiome pioneers – whose experienced team has worked with and developed processes for over 125 different species spanning 80 different genera of live biotherapeutics since 2009. Headed by a management team and technical experts with a proven track record in both process development and contract manufacturing through fermentation to lyophilization and encapsulation of live biopharmaceuticals, Arranta offers the knowledge and resources necessary to help clients develop and manufacture promising new microbiome therapies to meet the needs of patients. Additional information about Arranta is available at www.arrantabio.com. Enquiries can be sent to info@arrantabio.com

About Ampersand Capital Partners Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle market private equity firm dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston, MA and Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ampersand leverages a unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of its core healthcare sectors, including Avista Pharma Solutions, Brammer Bio, Confluent Medical, Genewiz, Genoptix, Talecris Biotherapeutics, and Viracor-IBT Laboratories. Additional information about Ampersand is available at www.ampersandcapital.com

Arranta Bio Media contact:

Guy Tiene
That’s Nice LLC
T: +1 212 366 4455
E: guy@thatsnice.com

Arranta Bio announces the acquisition of Captozyme™, creating a Center of Excellence for microbiome development and clinical supply

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Watertown, MA – November [13], 2019: Arranta Bio (“Arranta”) announced today the acquisition of Captozyme™, and with it the establishment of Arranta’s Center of Excellence for process and analytical development and early clinical supply for microbiome clients with the transfer of the Captozyme team and facilities in Gainesville, FL to Arranta. 

Formed in 2009, Captozyme has been the leader in providing development services to microbiome pioneers with a team that has developed processes for over 125 different species and 80 different genera over the past decade. In 2018, Captozyme established GMP clinical capacity and has successfully scaled processes to 400L scale fermentation through to lyophilization and encapsulation. The team has built significant know-how of handling, scaling, processing, and encapsulation of strict anaerobes.

Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Captozyme, Dr. Aaron Cowley, now Arranta’s CTO, said, “Having spent ten years developing processes for clients with over 125 bacteria, including difficult to make organisms, I am delighted that our team will now increase our capacity to serve the microbiome sector as part of Arranta, and we will be able to shepherd clients’ products through the clinical phases to commercial with our enhanced capabilities.”

Mark Bamforth, founder, President and CEO at Arranta, said, “We welcome the team from Captozyme into Arranta and applaud the foresight of its founders, lead by Dr. Cowley, to build expertise in the microbiome field. Now, we can accelerate the delivery of live biopharmaceutical products (LBPs) to the clinic for clients and, in time, through licensure to patients worldwide.” 

Arranta’s goal is to be the best-in-class microbiome contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), providing LBPs for microbiome-related product pioneers by bacterial fermentation, isolation, lyophilization and encapsulation.

As announced, Arranta recently completed a funding round with Ampersand Capital Partners, company founders and colleagues, and a strategic investment from Thermo Fisher Scientific. Arranta is establishing late-stage clinical and commercial-ready capacity at a new facility in Watertown, MA, which is scheduled to come online by Q3 2020.

As part of the transaction, Captozyme has spun out its enzyme therapeutic assets into a newly formed biopharmaceutical company, Oxidien Pharmaceuticals, LLC, to continue clinical development under the leadership of Captozyme’s outgoing CEO, Dr. Helena Cowley.

Almost 200 companies are actively exploring the linkage between diseases and the microbiome – millions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that live inside and on the human body – in order to identify therapeutic targets. Scientists have called it the second genome, and in fact, the number of genes in the microbes making up one person’s microbiome is 200 times the number in the human genome. 

Over the last decade, there has been rapid acceleration in scientific understanding of the composition and functions of the gut microbiota. Arranta is proud to be the leading CDMO supporting the supply needs of these innovators.

About Arranta Bio

Founded in 2019, Arranta Bio is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specifically established to focus on serving companies seeking to develop and commercialize therapies targeting the human microbiome. Headed by a management team and technical experts with a proven track record in both process development and contract manufacturing through fermentation to lyophilization and encapsulation of live biopharmaceuticals, it offers the knowledge and resources necessary to help clients to develop and manufacture promising new microbiome therapies to meet the needs of patients. Additional information about Arranta is available at www.arrantabio.com. Enquiries can be sent to info@arrantabio.com

About Captozyme™

Captozyme™ is the leader in process development and clinical contract manufacturing for microbiome pioneers and over the last decade the experienced team has worked with and developed processes for 125 different species and 80 different genera of live biotherapeutics. It has worked with partners to advance gut health research and make a lasting difference in the industry. Captozyme™ was founded by Dr. Qing-Shan Li and Dr. Aaron Cowley in 2009.

About Ampersand Capital Partners

Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle market private equity firm dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston, MA and Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ampersand leverages a unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of its core healthcare sectors, including Avista Pharma Solutions, Brammer Bio, Confluent Medical, Genewiz, Genoptix, Talecris Biotherapeutics, and Viracor-IBT Laboratories. Additional information about Ampersand is available at www.ampersandcapital.com

Arranta Bio Media contact: 

Guy Tiene
That’s Nice LLC
T: +1 212 366 4455
E: guy@thatsnice.com

Arranta Bio announces $82M in new funding, and a strategic partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific

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Watertown, MA – October 29, 2019: Arranta Bio (“Arranta”) announced today the completion of an $82 million funding round and a strategic partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific. 

Formed in May 2019, Arranta’s goal is to be the best-in-class microbiome contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). The business provides live biopharmaceutical products (LBPs) for microbiome pioneers by bacterial fermentation, isolation, drying and encapsulation.

Arranta’s funding round was completed with sole institutional investor, Ampersand Capital Partners, company founders and colleagues, and a strategic investment from Thermo Fisher. Mark Bamforth, Arranta’s Founder and CEO, said, “The microbiome is an expanding area of clinical development with the potential to impact many serious diseases, and Arranta is focused on helping pioneering companies in this field with a reliable, high-quality clinical and eventually commercial supply.”

Arranta is establishing late clinical and commercial-ready capacity at a new facility in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA, which will come online mid-2020.

Industry veteran Mark Bamforth previously founded, grew and subsequently sold Gallus Biopharmaceuticals and Brammer Bio, both of which today are a part of Thermo Fisher. Iain Baird has been instrumental in establishing the company as co-founder and will continue to support its growth. In addition, Arranta has built a strong leadership team, including Steve Favaloro as Chief Financial Officer, and Lana Gladstein as Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel, to drive the growth of the company. 

By partnering with Thermo Fisher, Arranta will have access to the company’s full suite of products and services and will provide materials to Thermo Fisher for use in gene therapy production. Michel Lagarde, Executive Vice President for Thermo Fisher, said, “We are pleased to be able to partner with the Arranta team to support customers in their clinical development of novel biopharmaceuticals to improve patient health.”

Almost 200 companies are actively exploring the linkage between the microbiome – millions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that live inside and on the human body – and diseases in order to identify therapeutic targets. Scientists have called it the second genome, and in fact, the number of genes in the microbes making up one person’s microbiome is 200 times the number in the human genome. 

Over the last decade, there has been rapid acceleration in scientific understanding of the composition and functions of the gut microbiota. Arranta is proud to be building a business to support the supply needs of these innovators.

About Arranta Bio

Founded in 2019, Arranta Bio is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specifically established to focus on serving companies seeking to develop and commercialize therapies targeting the human microbiome. Headed by a management team and technical experts with a proven track record in both process development and contract manufacturing through fermentation to lyophilization and encapsulation of live biopharmaceuticals, it offers the knowledge and resources necessary to help clients to develop and manufacture promising new microbiome therapies to meet the needs of patients. Additional information about Arranta is available at www.arrantabio.com. Enquiries can be sent to info@arrantabio.com.

About Ampersand Capital Partners

Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle market private equity firm dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston, MA and Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ampersand leverages a unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of its core healthcare sectors, including Avista Pharma Solutions, Brammer Bio, Confluent Medical, Genewiz, Genoptix, Talecris Biotherapeutics, and Viracor-IBT Laboratories. Additional information about Ampersand is available at www.ampersandcapital.com.

About Thermo Fisher

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $24 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands – Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services – we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Arranta Bio Media contact: 

Guy Tiene
That’s Nice LLC
T: +1 212 366 4455
E: guy@thatsnice.com