Arranta Bio Gets $82 Million in Funding, Forms Strategic Partnership with Thermo Fisher

On Oct. 30, 2019, Arranta Bio, a Watertown, MA-based microbiome contract development and manufacturing organization, announced that it has completed an $82-million round of funding and established a strategic partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific. Arranta provides live biopharmaceutical products (LBPs) for microbiome researchers through bacterial fermentation, isolation, drying, and encapsulation.

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

Arranta's funding round was completed with Ampersand Capital Partners, company founders and colleagues, and a strategic investment from Thermo Fisher. "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," said Mark Bamforth, Arranta's founder and CEO, in a company press release.

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. "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," stated Michel Lagarde, executive vice-president for Thermo Fisher, in the press release.

According to Arranta, 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 with the goal of identifying therapeutic targets. The microbiome is called the second genome by scientists, and the number of genes in the microbes making up one person's microbiome is 200 times the number in the human genome, according to the company. This past decade has particularly seen a rapid acceleration in scientific understanding of the composition and functions of the gut microbiota.

Source: Arranta Bio