Kintai’s host-targeting niche in Flagship microbiome ecosystem
Flagship’s latest microbiome play Kintai mimics bugs with oral small molecules
Kintai, Flagship’s latest foray into microbiome-based medicines, is taking bugs out of the equation by developing oral small molecules that mimic microbes’ therapeutic effects. Emerging from stealth mode Tuesday and led by Paul-Peter Tak as CEO, the biotech has discovered over 44,000 bacterial genes and hundreds of new metabolites in the gut, and is using that data to develop tissue-targeted therapies.
Kintai Therapeutics Inc. is Flagship Pioneering’s fourth company to address the interplay between the microbiome and human health. But while Seres Therapeutics Inc. and Evelo Biosciences Inc. deliver bugs as drugs and Kaleido Biosciences Inc. treats them as targets, Kintai is borrowing from bacterial biology to develop host-targeted therapeutics...