Press release

GHENT, Belgium – Dec. 13 2022 – IFF (NYSE: IFF) today announced that its Type-2 Diabetes Program, developed in collaboration with MRM Health—a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing next-generation live microbiome consortia therapeutics—has achieved preclinical development targets. With the achievement of this new milestone, both companies will now advance this research, which focuses on developing innovative therapies for metabolic diseases to the clinical development stage.

IFF joined forces with microbiome specialist MRM Health in 2020, aiming to tackle a range of metabolic diseases. In this research, the proprietary MRM Health technology platform and some selected IFF strains will be combined to develop novel therapeutics based on live bacterial strain combinations.

“We are very pleased to see the progress that MRM Health and IFF have made within our partnership programs in metabolic health,” said Oliver Hasselwander, technical fellow, IFF. “By reaching this preclinical milestone in the diabetes program, MRM Health has further demonstrated that their technology platform is unique in identifying next generation microbiome solutions, and we look forward to developing these together with MRM Health.”

The gut microbiome has a recognized role in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and associated diseases such as Type-2 diabetes and obesity. The two companies will continue the NAFLD program to further build on promising lead consortia. IFF and MRM Health’s collaboration on NAFLD will enable both parties to build upon the preclinical results, showing that a nine-strain bacterial consortium delays NAFLD progression and liver fibrosis. Part of this work was recently published in Biomedicines.

"This second milestone achievement is an important step in demonstrating our team's expertise and the capacity of our unique CORAL® platform to deliver differentiated microbiome therapeutics across different diseases,” said Sam Possemiers, CEO and co-founder of MRM Health. “We are delighted to be working with IFF to rapidly drive the program through this preclinical phase, and we are confident that our technologies have the potential to deliver future life-changing oral therapeutics for patients."

MRM Health’s CORAL® platform utilizes a bioinformatics-guided in-human discovery engine, combined with a breakthrough in optimization and manufacturing of consortia as single drug substance. The proprietary consortia optimization technology allows for the development of next-generation consortia therapeutics with faster onset-of-action and increased potency and robustness.

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About MRM Health

MRM Health NV, Ghent, Belgium, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of next-generation optimized consortium therapeutics based on the human microbiome. The company has built a diversified pipeline with its proprietary CORAL® platform to design, optimize, and manufacture bacterial consortia as single drug substance. Its most advanced program MH002 is an optimized consortium of 6 rationally-selected and well-characterized commensal strains. MH002 is currently being studied in two Phase 2 studies in patients with mild-to-moderate Ulcerative Colitis and acute Pouchitis, respectively. Additional pipeline development includes a preclinical program in Parkinson’s disease, preclinical programs in Type 2 Diabetes and in NAFLD (both partnered with IFF, previously DuPont), and a discovery program in autoimmune disease, including spondyloarthritis. 

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