Four years after opening for business, a subsidiary of Nestlé specializing in nutritional therapy is striking one of its most prominent investments to date with a bet on experimental treatments for the bacteria within the human body.
Nestlé Health Science plans to announce on Tuesday that it has invested $65 million in Seres Health, a start-up based in Cambridge, Mass., that focuses on restoring the “microbiome” — the host of microorganisms that provide vital functions for humans. The company’s current focus includes treatments for infectious diseases as well as metabolic and inflammatory illnesses.
The investment in Seres Health is one of several steps Nestlé Health Science plans to take as its seeks to advance nutrition related to health care. The business will also announce on Tuesday that it has set up a partnership with Flagship Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Boston, to help incubate start-ups in the nutritional therapy field.
Both announcements highlight the growing ambitions of Nestlé Health Science, which was set up to help the Swiss conglomerate expand its offerings that effectively bridge the fields of nutrition and health care. It has struck deals like the acquisition of Prometheus Laboratories, which focuses on personalized patient treatments for certain kinds of diseases like irritable bowel syndrome.
“There are some specific diseases where we know nutrition plays a very important role,” Greg Behar, Nestlé Health Science’s chief executive, said by telephone.
But that mission can be much broader, according to Mr. Behar. That explains the interest in Seres Health, which has one treatment to prevent a type of microbiome infection in Phase 3, or later stage, clinical trials at the moment. Ultimately, he added, the idea is to find different ways to treat certain types of diseases through the manipulation of the body’s microbial organisms instead of through traditional drugs.
“This therapeutic approach to nutrition offers great growth opportunities in the next three to five years,” he said.
Roger J. Pomerantz, the chairman and chief executive of Seres Health, added in a statement: “Nestlé Health Science is in tune with our intent to positively change existing medical paradigms and practices with clinically proven therapies harnessing new science.”
In some ways, the partnership with Flagship Ventures — which Mr. Behar described as one of the most sophisticated investors in health care and biopharmaceutical companies — helped lead to the Seres Health deal, since Flagship is an existing backer of the start-up.
“We welcome Nestlé Health Science as a co-investor and Greg Behar as a board member of Seres Health,” Noubar Afeyan, the chief executive of Flagship Ventures and a co-founder of Seres Health, said in a statement. “In addition, Flagship is excited to enter into a strategic innovation partnership aimed at providing Nestlé Health Science with early exposure to breakthrough innovations, and potentially contributing to Nestlé Health Science’s innovation pipeline.”
Ultimately, Mr. Behar suggested, Nestlé Health Science will do much more buying, once its targets have grown bigger and proven themselves.
“I wish we had a longer list of acquisitions,” he said. “But most of these companies are building themselves up.”
Date: January 6, 2015