22 September 2020 - - US-based biotechnology company Siolta Therapeutics has raised USD 30m in a series B investment round to support the clinical development of its lead product, STMC-103H, the company said.

The series B funding involved participation from top-tier investors and venture firms, including series A investors Khosla Ventures and Marc Benioff as well as new investors Seventure (Health for Life Capital Fund), SymBiosis, and Global Brain (Kirin Health Innovation Fund/GB-VII).

Siolta's live biotherapeutic product platform is designed to develop microbiome-based medicines and diagnostics for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases in targeted populations.

The lead program, focused on alleviating allergic diseases, aims to stop asthma before it starts through the disruption of the atopic march. The latest round of capital will go towards supporting clinical proof of concept trials testing the efficacy of their lead LBP product.

This comes on the heels of other operational and regulatory successes for the company, which includes the expansion of its executive team with the addition of John Martin, PhD and former CEO/chairman of Gilead, as an executive advisor; and Rich Shames, MD, an experienced drug developer and successful clinical scientist, as Siolta's Chief Medical officer.

Siolta has also received the Fast Track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for their lead prevention program and completed a Phase 1b "first in human" safety trial in adults, adolescents and children, recently scaling its manufacturing to support phase 2 studies.

Siolta Therapeutics was founded in 2016 by Susan Lynch, PhD (University of California at San Francisco, UCSF) and Nikole Kimes, PhD (Siolta, formerly UCSF) in partnership with Samir Kaul (Khosla Ventures). Siolta is a San Francisco Bay Area biotech company on a mission to alleviate the suffering of millions impacted by chronic inflammatory diseases through novel microbiome-based medicines.

Siolta leverages their deep knowledge of the developing infant gut microbiome and its role in promoting immune tolerance to develop targeted microbial therapeutics and companion diagnostics for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases.

The company's blended expertise from microbiology, immunology, and bioinformatics supports the development of a multifaceted platform that represents a new frontier in the pursuit of tailored, clinically differentiated microbial therapeutics.