MaaT Pharma Treats First Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patient in Phase 1 Clinical Trial to Evaluate Capsule Formulation of Microbiome Restoration Biotherapeutic

Date : November 12, 2020

  • MaaT033 is an oral formulation of MaaT Pharma’s fullecosystem biotherapeutic characterized by high microbial diversity and richness 
  • Study will evaluate safety, dosing regimen and activity of MaaT033 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia receiving intensive chemotherapy 

[divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”30″]Lyon, France, November 12, 2020 MaaT Pharma announced today that it treated its first patient in a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and tolerability of MaaT033, a capsule formulation of the company’s lead biotherapeutic, MaaT013, characterized by high microbial species diversity and richness. The trial named CIMON will enroll patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or high-risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) following intensive chemotherapy. MaaT033 is being developed to provide a complete approach to restoring a functional gut microbiome and re-establishing immune system homeostasis to treat life-threatening diseases. The capsule formulation provides a convenient route of administration for patients who are already undergoing intensive treatment regimens, while providing a high and consistent richness of microbial species, derived from pooling the intestinal ecosystems of healthy donors.

John Weinberg, MD, Chief Medical Officer at MaaT Pharma commented: “As shown in our previous ODYSSEE trial, cancer treatments, in particular chemotherapy, induce a drastic reduction in microbial species networks in the gut, leading to a decline in its protective epithelial layer and disruption of immune system functionality. This in turn can result in multiple complications, some of them severe, especially for leukemia patients. The MaaT033 capsule formulation is designed to restore the microbiome of patients that receive intensive chemotherapy and adds an important treatment modality to our portfolio of microbiome restoration therapeutics. Use in an ambulatory setting will be facilitated, and we will be able to address the needs of a broader patient population.”

The CIMON trial (NCT04150393) will enroll 27 patients in 4 centers. It is an open-label Phase 1b study to investigate the maximum tolerated dose of MaaT033, over 7 or 14 days, that supports gut microbiome engraftment in patients with AML or high-risk MDS that are undergoing intensive chemotherapy. Overall safety, tolerability, and dose regimen will be evaluated, as will the impact on the gut microbiome, to identify a recommended Phase II dose.

“Initiating the clinical evaluation of our capsule formulation is an important milestone for MaaT Pharma, enabling us to expand our therapeutics pipeline with a complementary product candidate to our MaaT013 biotherapeutic. MaaT033 is designed to address a number of different tumor indications where increased ease of administration is important,” added Hervé Affagard, CEO and Co-founder of MaaT Pharma. “Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to meet our development goals for our growing pipeline of microbiome biotherapeutics while ensuring the safety and quality of our product candidates.”

The CIMON Phase 1b trial is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021.

About MaaT033

MaaT033 is an oral, full-ecosystem, off-the-shelf, standardized, pooled-donor, high-richness microbiome biotherapeutic. It is manufactured at MaaT Pharma’s centralized European cGMP production facility. MaaT033 is designed to restore the gut ecosystem to full functionality in order to improve clinical outcomes as well as control adverse events related to conventional treatments for cancer. The capsule formulation eases administration while maintaining the high and consistent richness and diversity of microbial species, including anti-inflammatory “Butycore” species, which characterize MaaT Pharma’s products.

About MaaT Pharma

MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage company, has established the most complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis to improve survival outcomes in life-threatening diseases. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has already achieved proof of concept in acute myeloid leukemia patients and a Phase 2 clinical trial in acute GvHD is ongoing. Supporting the further expansion of our pipeline into larger indications, we have built a powerful discovery and analysis platform, GutPrint®, to evaluate drug candidates, determine novel disease targets and identify biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. Our therapeutics are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators.

Acting Chief Scientific Officer

Sheri Simmons

Sheri Simmons, Ph.D., is Acting Chief Scientific Officer at MaaT Pharma. Sheri brings extensive experience in biotechnology, particularly in the microbiome field, having held scientific leadership positions at Seres Therapeutics, Johnson & Johnson’s Microbiome Solutions team, and most recently at Seed Health, a leading probiotics company. In her role, she strengthens the Company’s scientific leadership, overseeing preclinical research, AI/data initiatives, and supporting efforts toward the Marketing Authorization Application of Xervyteg® in aGvHD.

Sheri holds a PhD in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and completed an A.B. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and as a Phi Beta Kappa member, receiving one of six awards for the best senior thesis in the sciences. Sheri holds a PhD in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and completed an A.B. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and as a Phi Beta Kappa member, receiving one of six awards for the best senior thesis in the sciences.

CEO and co-founder

Hervé Affagard

Hervé Affagard is the CEO and co-founder of MaaT Pharma. For the past 15 years, Hervé has been an intra/entrepreneur in the healthcare industry, after starting his career in IT in the steel industry. In late 2014, Hervé co-founded the company alongside Dr. Joël Doré, author of nearly 500 publications, and
one of the world’s most cited authors in the microbiome sphere today, after a professional career that spanned multiple industries. Hervé has led MaaT Pharma’s development from its early concept in 2013 and has been at the forefront of the development of the microbiome healthcare ecosystem in France and Europe. In January 2022, Hervé has been elected President of Allliance Promotion Microbiote, an organization founded in 2021 to support the microbiome sector development in France.

Engineer, MBA