AbbVie Signs Deal With Synlogic

AbbVie and Synlogic will collaborate and use Synlogic’s combined microbiome and synthetic biology approach for drug development. The partners have picked inflammatory bowel conditions, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, as the first targets for probiotic therapies. Cambridge, Mass.-based Synlogic engineers probiotic bacteria with genetic switches to modulate metabolic functions in the microbiome. Under a multiyear deal, it will discover, characterize, and optimize synthetic-biotics-based candidates for evaluation and clinical testing by AbbVie.