We are building a leading microbiome company
We are a committed team of experts seeking to help patients through effective microbiome restoration biotherapeutics
Key Figures
191 patients enrolled in our trials overall (interventional and observational)
8 patent families filed, 1 in-licensed patent, 3 Trademarks filed
90% reconstruction of the microbiome following cancer treatments (AML – Autologus)
5 Clinical trials authorized in 2 years in several countries
30€ million financing raise
29 employees
Our team comprises of Investors Academics and Strategic Partners, all Microbiome experts, and a team of 20 employees fully committed to the MaaT Pharma project.
Our Vision
Become the industry leader for the treatment of Gut Microbiota alteration (Dysbiosis) using patient-specific biotherapeutics in patients with serious medical conditions.
Our Mission
Our initial goal is to develop a series of biotherapeutics aiming to improve the survival outcome of blood cancer. Our revolutionary MaaT Microbiome Restoration Therapy (MMRB) discovery and analysis platform will support the evaluation of drug candidates, the determination of novel disease targets and the identification of biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions.
Our Ecosystem
MaaT Pharma has established several strong business partnerships. We have developed an efficient academic-industry translational collaboration with two entities from INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique or French National Institute for Agricultural Research): Micalis and MetaGenoPolis to design our proprietary MaaT Microbiome Restoration Platform which is the engine of our drug development platform. We also established a partnership with Biocodex in the area of oral formulation development. These two collaborations have led to the filing of 8 patent families and 1 patent in-license agreement.
The microbiome industry is emerging, especially the notion of developing therapeutics sourced from gut microbiota. As of today, there are three main approaches: Fecal microbiotherapy (via enteral or oral adminstration), microbiota modulators (agonists or antagonists) or molecules mimicking microbial components or products. We compete in the field of developing drugs based on the concept of fecal microbiotherapy using a unique pooled technology allowing very high diversity restoration. This approach has showed the highest efficacy in the therapeutic area of Clostridium difficile.
We have been working in coordination with the French regulatory agency (ANSM) since we designed our initial clinical development program framework in 2014 aiming at evaluating our microbiota-based drugs. Since then, we have extended our discussions at the EMA level as well as local competent national authorities and the FDA, in the USA. As for our medical devices, they were developed in line with the 93/42/CEE directive. We intend to obtain a CE marking for all our devices. To date, our collection device is CE marked, whereas the certification for our class II storage bag and accessories is expected by Q1 -2019.
MaaT Pharma targets to develop products that would be primarily prescribed by physicians in hospitals. We have, to date, completed several clinical trials that were conducted in 12 different hospitals in France where we initially assessed our drug candidates. We are now expanding geographically to 20 additional hospitals in Europe thanks to our clinical trial in acute GvHD.
We are located in the Gerland Biodistrict in Lyon, a vibrant ecosystem composed of leading businesses, SMEs and start-ups, research laboratories, universities and elite institutions, where we have established successful partnerships. We are also a member of the Lyonbiopole Cluster, the gateway to healthcare innovation in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Since our foundation in December 2014, Seventure, a subsidiary of Natixis and the first European fund devoted to microbiome investments “Health for Life”, has been a shareholder along with CM-CIC Innovation, one of the leading financers in high tech companies in France, Biocodex, an independent multinational pharmaceutical leader focused initially on probiotics, and finally the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA,) one of the leading academic centers in the field of Microbiota. As of March 2018, MaaT Pharma has raised 12 m€ in equity and 5+ m€ in non-dilutive funding thanks to the support from Bpifrance and our banking pool CIC and BNP Paribas.
Our Team.
Hervé Affagard
Chief Executive Officer – Co founder
As an entrepreneur in residence, Hervé has led MaaT Pharma since its inception phase in 2014. Notably, he was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in Healthcare (2016) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of MaaT Pharma.
Engineer, Executive MBA, Certificate “Exploring your Microbiome”, Francebiotech
Our Team.
Dr John Weinberg
Chief Medical Officer
John joined MaaT Pharma as CMO in July 2020. He brings 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a strong expertise in microbiome-based therapeutic development and immune modulation. Prior to joining Maat Pharma, John has held various senior positions at Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Enzon Pharmaceuticals, gaining a breadth of international experience in clinical development of various oncology, hematology and transplantation therapeutics.
MD, MBA
Siân Crouzet
Chief Operations Officer
Siân has led the Finance and Operational functions at MaaT Pharma since 2016. She has held various finance roles, including 7 years as Principal Financial Officer and Director at Avadel Pharmaceuticals (AVDL) where she was involved in a capital raise of $130 million.
CPA, IFRS Certified
Savita Bernal
Chief Business Officer
Savita joined MaaT Pharma in May 2019 as CBO. She was the Director of Strategic Marketing and Corporate Communications, Business Development at biopharmaceutical company ADOCIA. Before this, she was Business Development Manager at e(ye)BRAIN, a medical device company that provided assistance in diagnosing neurological and psychiatric diseases and worked as a Consultant for the Healthcare Industry at E&Y.
PhD, business graduate.
Dr Carole Schwintner
Pharmaceutical Development Director
Carole has led the Pharmaceutical Development activities since 2014. Previously, she held diverse responsibilities in GMP manufacturing for Biorad as Microbiology Production Director. She was also COO for a start-up company specializing in glycosylated proteins.
PhD, Graduate agronomist specialized in biotechnology
Jean-Marc Renard
Senior Advisor
Jean-Marc has more than 35 years experience in the Biotech and Pharmaceutical industry,
first with Biogen and then with the Sanofi group where he has held positions in Research, Finance,
Commercial Operations, Business Development and M&A in France, Asia and the United States.
He holds and MS in Biochemical Engineering from Institut National Agronomique and an MBA from INSEAD.
GvHD-focused Scientific Advisory Board.
Ernst Holler, MD, PhD
Ernst Holler was Director of the Clinical and Experimental Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Program in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Regensburg, Germany, for more than 20 years and is now Senior Professor on Translational Research in GvHD. With more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts to his name, he is an expert in the field of Graft versus Host Disease and was awarded the van Bekkum Award, the highest award from the European Society for Stem Cell Transplantation.
Madan Jagasia, MD
Madan Jagasia is Professor of Medicine in Hemato-oncology and Chief Medical Officer at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, TN. As a clinical investigator with over 20 years of experience, his primary research interest is GvHD and is the site’s principal investigator for the national US chronic GvHD consortium.
Robert Jenq, MD
Robert Jenq is an Assistant Professor and Deputy Department Chair at the Department of Genomic Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. His research uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine the impact of the microbiome on cancer treatment particularly on bone marrow transplantation and cancer immunotherapies.
Florent Malard, MD, PhD
Florent Malard is a hematologist at the Hospital Saint-Antoine and an Associate Professor at Sorbonne University in Paris, France. His research includes clinical and translational studies on allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with a particular focus on preclinical studies on GvHD and has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts.
Robert Zeiser, MD
Robert Zeiser is Head of the Section for Tumor Immunology and Immune Modulation at the Medical Center of the University of Freiburg in Germany. His research focuses on haematology, oncology, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. He has received several awards for his outstanding achievements in clinical therapeutic drug research.
Pr Mohamad Mohty
Medical Hematology – Oncology Advisor
Mohamad is a full Professor, Head of the Hematology and Cellular Therapy Department at Saint-Antoine Hospital and Sorbonne University. He is the former president of the EBMT (European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation). He has issued more than 500 publications relating to hematological malignancies.
MD, PhD, EBMT, ASBMT, EHA, ASH, ASCO
Dr Joël Doré
Scientific Advisor
Joël is a worldwide renowned researcher with more than 200 publications relating to the Host/Microbiome interaction. He is a Research Director at INRA (France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research) and Scientific Director of MetaGenoPolis. He brings more than 30 years of research in the Microbiome field.
PhD in Intestinal Microbiology
Our Board Of Directors.
Jean-Marie Lefevre
Chairman of the Board – Non-Executive Director
Jean-Marie has been President and CEO of Biocodex. He steered the creation of the “Biocodex Microbiota Institute” supporting innovative projects from Microbiota researchers. Jean-Marie has a long-track record of CEO positions amongst international firms such as LVMH or Bongrain.
Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, MBA from Insead
Our Board Of Directors.
Dr Pierre Belichard
Non-Executive Director – Co founder
As a co-founder of MaaT Pharma, Pierre is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Enterome Bioscience, a pioneer from the Microbiome industry. Previously he co-founded Fovea Pharmaceuticals which was sold to Sanofi where he became the VP M&A and Business Development at Sanofi Ophthalmology.
PharmD, PhD, MBA from INSEAD
Isabelle de Crémoux
Non-Executive Director
Isabelle is CEO and Managing Partner of Seventure Partners. Prior to joining Seventure, she managed multiple international deals at Fournier/Abbott and Pfizer. Being visionary, she launched Health for Life Capital™, the first European investment vehicle to support the microbiome revolution.
Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris
Dr Eric de la Fortelle
Non-Executive Director
Eric is a Venture Partner in the Life Sciences Team at Seventure Partners, specializing in Microbiome investments. Prior to joining Seventure, Eric was CEO of Delenex Therapeutics, a Zurich-based biotechnology company, sold to Cell Medica.
Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, MBA from Insead, PhD
Hervé Affagard
Chief Executive Officer – Co founder
As an entrepreneur in residence, Hervé has led MaaT Pharma since its inception phase in 2014. Notably, he was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in Healthcare (2016) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of MaaT Pharma.
Engineer, Executive MBA, Certificate “Exploring your Microbiome”, Francebiotech
Julien Samson
Independent Non-Executive Director
Julien is the General Manager of GlaxoSmithKline Korea. Previously he was appointed Vice-President – Commercial Operations Pharmaceuticals for the global respiratory franchise at GSK. Prior to joining GSK in 2012, Samson worked at France’s public hospitals and government agencies.
ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration)
Dr Claude Bertrand
Non-Executive Director
Claude joined as a board member in July 2020. Since 2017, Claude has held the position of Executive Vice President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Servier. He brings decades of high-level leadership in pharmaceutical R&D, having previously served as Executive Vice-President of R&D at Ipsen Pharma and as Global Senior Vice President for Respiratory & Inflammation Research Area at AstraZeneca. His career also includes senior positions at Novartis, Roche and Pfizer.
PharmD, PhD
Our Partnerships
Partnering with MaaT Pharma
to accelerate the access of our drugs to patients.
We are constantly looking to explore new frontiers, improve our drugs and improve the preparation of our clinical trials. Therefore, we are open to partnerships with investigator-initiated studies to collect Big Data using our GutPrint® meta genomics platform.