Microbiotica appoints CIC's Robert Tansley as Chief Medical Officer
Microbiotica is a clinical-stage biopharma company developing a pipeline of oral precision microbiome medicines called live biotherapeutic products (LBPs).
Spun out of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in 2016, the company is based in purpose-built facilities at the Chesterford Research Park. It has raised more than £62 million equity investment, including a £50m Series B in 2022, with venture investors including British Patient Capital, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Flerie Invest, IP Group plc, Seventure Partners and Tencent. The company has also received financial support from the US-based Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.
Dr Tansley steps into the role at a key development stage for Microbiotica with its two lead programmes progressing through Phase I clinical trials in immuno-oncology (MB097 for advanced melanoma), and inflammatory bowel disease (MB310 for ulcerative colitis) with data read-outs anticipated this year.
He says: “I am delighted to be expanding my role at Microbiotica at this exciting time for the company as it completes early clinical efficacy studies. Having initially joined the Board of Directors when Cambridge Innovation Capital co-led the seed investment round in 2016, it has been a pleasure to work with such an outstanding group of academics, scientists and drug developers and to see the business approach these key inflection points.
“The rapidly expanding academic literature supports the huge potential of the microbiome for positively impacting human disease. Many of the challenges experienced in demonstrating the clinical utility of LBPs in recent years may have been down to underestimating the complexity of the microbiome.
“Having studied the field for the last decade, I believe that Microbiotica has the most robust scientific approach for the discovery and development of defined LBPs, based on a foundation of clinical data and a keen focus on understanding disease mechanism. This gives Microbiotica the chance of making a real breakthrough in this new modality through the development of safe, clinically differentiated therapies.
“This is the right time for me to pursue a long-standing scientific and clinical interest in the microbiome field by taking on an executive role, while continuing to oversee my responsibilities at CIC. I’m looking forward to contributing more deeply to Microbiotica’s mission and its exciting future.”
Dr Tansley will step down as a Microbiotica Board Director as he takes up this new role and, in his place, Dr Anne Horgan will be appointed to the Microbiotica Board as CIC’s Investor Director.
Dr Ron Carter, who has served as consultant Chief Medical Officer, will stay with the Company as Senior Vice-President, Medical Affairs and will continue to oversee the medical management of its ongoing studies.
Tim Sharpington, Microbiotica CEO, said: “We are excited that Robert is joining at this key time in the company’s evolution. His experience as a drug developer and investor will greatly strengthen our management team as we approach key data read-outs in our first clinical trials and make plans for future growth.
“I look forward to working closely with Robert as a key member of our executive team and with Anne Horgan as our new director. She brings over 20 years’ experience, spanning across all aspects of Life Sciences innovation from drug discovery, technology transfer and business development to equity financing that will be valuable as we grow.”
Microbiotica has a major partnership with Cancer Research UK and Cambridge University Hospitals in immuno-oncology. The company has a clinical trial supply agreement with MSD (Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA) for use of KEYTRUDA in evaluating MB097 in melanoma patients with primary resistance to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. MB310 was developed in collaboration with the University of Adelaide. Both programmes have data read-outs in 2025.
