Lesaffre invests €15.5m in phage start-up

Lesaffre is well-known as a key player regarding yeasts and fermentation, and designs and manufactures products for the food, healthcare and biotech industries. With the investment of more than €15m (US$17.5m) into US-based Intralytix Inc., Lesaffre follows its ongoing expansion strategy in the nutrition and health sector. Intralytix is a world leader in the development of bacteriophage-based products for food safety. “We believe that bacteriophages technology, mastered by Intralytix, offers an exciting platform for developing various antimicrobial products that will help reduce antibiotic resistance“, states Antoine Baule, CEO of Lesaffre. The investment should allow Intralytix to add high throughput robotic technologies and expand their phage production capabilities. The company already has three FDA approved phage-based products on the market, which are effective at eliminating different types of bacteria in food: for example E. coli O157:H7 in red meat or Salmonella in poultry, fish, shellfish, as well as fresh and processed fruits and vegetables. In April, its latest food safety product, ShigaShield, was generally recognised as safe by the FDA.

This new collaboration can advance Intralytix’ core bacteriophage/phage technology platform for medical use and human health to reduce or eliminate bacterial colonisation. The non-chemical antimicrobial preparations could be useful compounds to fight antibiotic resistance.