Vedanta Biosciences, a Boston-based microbiome company, has announced a license agreement with Janssen Biotech, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, for Vedanta's lead microbiome pharmaceutical candidate (VE202), which has demonstrated efficacy in published preclinical studies using models of autoimmune disease. The agreement was facilitated by the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston.

Janssen will develop and seek to commercialize the pharmaceutical candidate in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Vedanta will receive an up-front payment and is eligible to receive development and commercialization milestone payments for an IBD indication up to a potential total of $241 million, plus possible additional consideration related to commercialization. Vedanta may continue to explore other disease indications and Janssen and Vedanta may elect to develop and commercialize within one or more additional indications with terms similar to the IBD indication.

This agreement follows the initial investment that Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JJDC, made in Vedanta in June 2013.