Nestlé, the consumer products powerhouse selling brands ranging from Friskies Cat food to Dreyer’s Ice Cream, is expanding its pharmaceutical portfolio with massive investments.
First is the announcement that the company is acquiring Aimmune Therapeutics for $2.1 billion. California-based Aimmune, is the company behind Palforzia, the first and so far only FDA-approved food allergy immunotherapy on the market today. Palforzia received approval in February to treat peanut allergies in patients aged 4-17.
Then, biopharmaceutical company Enterome signed a strategic R&D collaboration and license agreement with Nestlé worth $40 million targeting food allergies and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Enterome will lead drug discovery activities and bear related costs leading up to an investigational new drug (IND) application for EB1010, a local inducer of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. A deficiency of IL-10 is implicated in auto-immune diseases including food allergy and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).
Said Hans-Juergen Woerle, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of Nestlé Health Science:
Approximately 220 million people around the world live with food allergies, while seven million live with inflammatory bowel disease. Through this collaboration, we are aiming to develop novel therapies for these two disease areas with high unmet medical need.
We are excited about the opportunity to partner with Enterome on their unique microbiome drug discovery platform striving to develop first-in-class, high-quality treatment solutions that will help patients to live a healthier life.
