Arranta Bio, a new CDMO that focuses on the human microbiome, has completed an $82 million funding round and formed a strategic partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Arranta was formed in May 2019 to provide live biopharmaceutical products for microbiome developers by bacterial fermentation, isolation, drying and encapsulation. Arranta is establishing late clinical-stage and commercial-ready capacity at a new facility in Watertown, Massachusetts, which the company expects to come on line in mid-2020.

Arranta’s funding round was completed with a sole institutional investor, Ampersand Capital Partners, company founders and colleagues, and a strategic investment from Thermo Fisher. Under the agreement, Arranta will have access to Thermo Fisher’s products and services and will provide materials to Thermo Fisher for use in gene-therapy production.

Arranta Bio was founded by Mark Bamforth, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO), and founder and former CEO of Brammer Bio, a CDMO focused on cell and gene therapies that was acquired earlier this year (May 2019) for $1.7 billion by Thermo Fisher Scientific. He is also the founder and former CEO of Gallus BioPharmaceuticals, a St. Louis, Missouri-based biologics CDMO, which was acquired by Patheon in 2014 and that subsequently became part of Thermo Fisher with Thermo Fisher’s $7.2-billion acquisition of Patheon in 2017.

Source: Arranta Bio