The biotech industry is suffering from a serious talent shortage, with start-ups in particular having an increasingly hard time filling C-level positions. Yet despite this difficulty, many job searches are failing to look beyond the industry’s stereotypical candidate, throwing their hands up in despair when the typical white middle-aged man can’t be found to fill the role. In broadening the search to include more diverse candidates – including women and people with different ethnic backgrounds – we will not only help to address the talent shortage but also strengthen the start-ups themselves. So how can a company build and maintain a more diverse management team?
Early-stage Venture Capital investors such a V-Bio Ventures work hard to identify academic innovations and transform them into successful companies, to generate a return on investment but also to create products that can deliver value to society. In the process, investors like us are spend a substantial amount of time engaging with the dedicated management teams that are essential to the success of these start-ups.
At recent networking events we’ve attended, many of the event sessions have been dedicated to the questions: how do we find new management teams, and how do we accelerate the transition of talent out of academia? Currently, there are simply not enough serial entrepreneurs to fill the C-level suites of all the new start-up companies. This issue is however exacerbated by the tendency to restrict searches (consciously or not) to the typical ‘middle-aged white man with previous CEO experience’.
“Not only do we need to broaden the search for talent, but we also have to ensure that these diverse leaders are retained in the industry.” – Christina Takke
We argue that this approach is insufficient as it excludes many great candidates from the talent pool, both by insisting on previous management experience and by limiting the diversity of the next generation of management teams. Not only do we need to broaden the search for talent, but we also have to ensure that these diverse leaders are retained in the industry.
Awareness of the issue
Awareness of the gender gap is now widespread in the biotech industry. To address the issue, some companies are completing placement programs to actively recruit women to boards. Mentoring programs have also been established, and efforts have been launched to track female progression within companies. But to compose the best possible management teams, diversity needs to go beyond gender balance – we need to accelerate the inclusion of all forms of diversity in the biotech industry, for example improving the inclusion of ethnic and LGBTQ+ representation.
We’ve made a good start: on the 6th of August 2021, the Nasdaq Stock Market’s ‘Board Diversity Rule’ was approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The rule requires companies to have at least two diverse directors on their Board – including a self-identified woman and someone who self-identifies as an underrepresented minority or as LGBTQ+ – or explain why they do not have such representation. Nasdaq’s initiative is bold, was long overdue, and will hopefully serve as inspiration for Boardrooms and companies in both the U.S. and abroad.
“To compose the best possible management teams, diversity needs to go beyond gender balance – we need to accelerate the inclusion of all forms of diversity in the biotech industry.” – Christina Takke
How to tackle the challenge?
Policies like the Nasdaq rule create awareness but change also needs to be implemented. So how do we broaden the talent pool beyond the limitations of the current, rather non-diverse, biotech industry network?
Ask the right people!
There is a relatively simple way to tackle this problem: by asking around. We often hear people lamenting how they “couldn’t find the right person for the job”. But did they consult the right sources? If we’re looking for women to join our teams, then we should be asking other women for their networks. If we are looking for ethnic diversity, we need ask the people in our industry from various cultures and backgrounds for their recommendations. By tapping into the diversity that does already exist, we can help to broaden it.
Make sure they want to stay!
Once an individual is found and recruited, the next challenge arises: retention. If a person isn’t made to feel like they’re an intrinsic and welcome part of the team, their enthusiasm for the job will quickly evaporate. To form a connection (and to benefit from a person’s unique perspective), it’s essential that the other team members display a genuine interest in them and make time for quality conversation. In this context, it’s not a prerequisite to already have similarities such as common interests or shared histories. What matters is the willingness to engage in a dialogue with the new team member – unbiased interest and the ability to listen will make all the difference.
Why inclusivity is key
Feeling included in a group is an immensely important factor for wellbeing and performance. To understand why, we can turn to the writings of Eveline Crone, Professor for neurocognitive psychology at the Universities of Leiden and Amsterdam. Her research group is studying brain development during adolescence, comparing their findings with the adult brain.
An interesting chapter of Crone’s book ‘The Adolescent Brain’ is dedicated to the brain’s response to social exclusion. In it, she references the research of psychologist Kipling Williams, Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University, who created a computer game called ‘Cyberball’ to study the psychological consequences of ostracism. By measuring the brain functions of individuals playing games that mimic social exclusion scenarios, it was revealed that the brain areas reacting to rejection stimuli are the same as those detecting physical pain (the anterior insular and anterior cingulate cortex). In other words: the brain responds to social exclusion in a similar way to physical pain.
“It is essential – not only for the wellbeing of the individual but also for the company – that every team member is made to feel included, with both their similarities and their differences celebrated.” – Christina Takke
In the adult brain, this sensation of pain can be dampened by the rational prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain that is still under development in adolescents. This means that, generally speaking, adults are better able to cope with social exclusion than adolescents. But even in adults, the pain of rejection cannot be neglected altogether. If not dealt with it properly, this sensation can lead to burnouts, depression, and low self-esteem, resulting in underperformance or even resignation of the excluded team member. Therefore it is essential – not only for the wellbeing of the individual but also for the company – that every team member is made to feel included, with both their similarities and their differences celebrated.
Good sense for both people and business
To establish and maintain a diverse workforce in biotech, we not only need to find diverse and new talent by searching differently, but we also need to make a serious effort to create an inclusive environment in order to retain them. If we don’t achieve this, many brilliant new ideas will lack the management and guidance needed to drive these inventions to success. What’s more: evidence is mounting that diversity in management teams, boards, and investment funds is not only morally superior – it also results in improved company success!
While more work needs to be done, many of our companies are already actively trying to tackle this challenge. We at V-Bio Ventures will continue to push for increased diversity in management teams, because we know that it not only ‘levels the playing field’: it also makes good business sense and helps organizations grow and prosper.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought vaccines back into the drug development spotlight, and mRNA vaccines are stealing the show with sales of USD 54.4 billion in 2021 alone. Few know that the developers of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines actually drew upon years of experience attempting to develop cancer vaccines. This approach goes back several decades, and although the field has to date seen limited success, it has nevertheless witnessed a renewed interests in recent years. We examine the latest trends in cancer vaccine development, and where the opportunities lie for the future of the industry.
Before receiving attention for its successful Sars-CoV-2 vaccine Comirnaty, the well-known German mRNA-focused firm BioNTech was a company dedicated to cancer vaccines. The significant revenues from Comirnaty are now actively being funneled back into this pipeline, to advance the company’s cancer vaccine programs (which now boast ten clinical-stage assets, spanning four Phase II programs and eight Phase I programs). On the other side of the pond, the other famed mRNA company Moderna is also making news in the oncology space, with the announcement in October 2022 that Merck agreed to exercise its USD 250 million option to co-develop and co-commercialize a personalized cancer vaccine with the company.
Boosting cancer treatments
The promise of cancer vaccines lies in their ability to not only treat extant tumors, but to train our own immune systems to recognize and eradicate cancerous cells before tumor establishment. Despite the failures of more than 150 clinical programs in the past decades, and less than 10 approved cancer vaccine products, the field has kept evolving and learning from its past. Aided by recent breakthroughs – including new scientific insights in immuno-oncology; technological advances, like state-of-the-art genetic screening and AI-prediction; and new modalities, such as mRNA and DNA technology – the field is poised for a comeback.
“The promise of cancer vaccines lies in their ability to not only treat extant tumors, but to train our own immune systems to recognize and eradicate cancerous cells before tumor establishment.” – Ethan Kuo
For the last few decades, cancer vaccine development has primarily focused on products acting as secondary immuno-oncology therapies to treat tumors not well-served by current treatments, either on their own or in combination with other cancer therapies. Most of BioNTech’s clinical pipeline of therapeutic cancer vaccines exemplifies this focus: vaccines combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors or adjuvants to help break through the natural resistance tumors have to immune attacks. In this format, cancer vaccines are however in direct competition with other (combinatorial) immuno-oncology therapies, both established and experimental, and the vaccines can at best be viewed as add-ons to checkpoint inhibitors.
Injecting new life into the field
Spurred by these limitations, we have started to witness a growing number of drug development programs in cancer vaccines for preventative use. There are two noticeable approaches emerging in the preventive cancer vaccine space: (1) preventing the re-establishment of tumors in patients where their tumor has been surgically removed, but they still have detectable tumor DNA in their blood, and (2) preventing cancer development in a selected group of cancer-free individuals who, according to genetic testing, are deemed to be at high risk of developing certain types of cancer.
The first approach towards preventing tumor re-establishment is exemplified by the latest Phase II study designs of Moderna’s mRNA-4157 program on melanoma, and BioNTech’s BNT122 program on colorectal cancer. Both companies are using an approach that combines two things: the latest technological advancements, which enable personalized mRNA vaccines (including fast bench-to-bedside capability and next-gen sequencing of circulating tumor DNA); and a clever trial setup, that allows cancer vaccines to deal with cancer cells before tumor establishment (hence bypassing the hostile tumor microenvironment). Both programs are also combining their cancer vaccines with Merck’s immune checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda in order to maximize efficacy.
“There is a noticeable lack of VC funding in this area, likely due to the unattractively long timelines associated with clinical development of preventive cancer vaccines.” – Ethan Kuo
The second emerging approach – delivering preventive cancer vaccines to specific groups of people – has been made possible thanks to our improved understanding of genetic risk factors contributing to cancer development. Two non-VC-backed clinical studies exemplify this trend. The first, announced in September, is Blackstone’s USD 55 million gift to the University of Pennsylvania to support testing of Inovio’s Phase II DNA cancer vaccine INO-5401 as a preventative for breast cancer in people carrying BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. The other is a clinical Phase I/II cancer vaccine developed by the US National Cancer Institute to prevent colon cancer in high-risk patients with Lynch Syndrome. While encouraging, there is a noticeable lack of VC funding in this area, likely due to the unattractively long timelines associated with clinical development of preventive cancer vaccines.
Funding future shots
Cancer vaccines have been riding the recent wave of progress in many scientific and technological areas such as mRNA technology, immune checkpoint inhibition, and precision diagnostics. Although the industry continues to focus on their use as a therapeutic modality, cancer vaccines aimed at preventing tumor (re)establishment after treatment are likely to have an even higher chance of success, in terms of both competition and mechanism of action. This approach is currently being spearheaded by the mRNA-market-leaders BioNTech and Moderna, but we might soon see more VC-backed companies following the same route with other modalities, types of antigens, and drug combinations. The jury is still out, as convincing clinical evidence remains to be delivered. The dependency on checkpoint inhibitors also still needs to be evaluated, as it may detract in part from the benefit of cancer vaccines promised to patients, such as fewer side effects. Regarding the final approach – using vaccines to prevent tumor formation in people genetically at high risk of cancer – the field has to date found it challenging to raise VC funding. Unfortunately, as the approach holds huge potential for patients, the industry will likely require at least one successful example to draw on before investors can be convinced of the viability these types of projects.
How are we going to feed an expected 10 billion people by 2050 in a sustainable way? It is a daunting task. Our climate is changing, and a combination of environmental and economic factors are already resulting in widespread food shortages. There is no simple solution to this problem, but innovation in the food and agtech sector will help alleviate the burden. To make this possible, stakeholders – including researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and governments – need to make agrifood innovation a priority immediately.
We’ve already started witnessing the devastating impact of climate change across the world. Agriculture and food systems are particularly vulnerable to the extreme conditions – including droughts, floods, fires, pests, and disease – associated with this environmental crisis.
Ironically, agriculture is itself a part of the problem, significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity. Subsequently, there is a strong push for more sustainable agriculture industry: one that is less reliant on the use of synthetic fertilizers, chemicals, and water; that not only requires less land, but also regenerates the soil and sequesters carbon.
The sheer number of scientists, innovators, entrepreneurs, farmers, chefs, communities, and so on that are busy innovating in this complex field gives us reason to be optimistic. With so many helping hands and bright minds on the task, there is hope that we will find a way to drastically change our food system to make more sustainable and climate resilient.
“Food and agriculture innovation must go hand in hand: to shift towards a more sustainable and climate-proof agriculture will require us to adapt our diet, rethink and anticipate which crops we need, and where and how we should grow them.” – Aurelie Nowack
Progress has been made so far. The agrifood industry has provided farmers around the world with machinery, irrigation, fertilizers, improved crop varieties and crop protection. There has also been a huge uptick in data and connectivity, which fits the needs of a highly productive food system that responds to consumer demands. The intensification of a limited number of food and feed crops in the past 70 years has reduced famines and food shortages, while sparing land for nature.
But if we are to reduce our greenhouse emissions, helping farmers increase their yields is not sufficient anymore. We have just under 8 years left to meet the UN 2030 goals, to mitigate the impact of climate change and limit global warming to 1.5º Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Due to the urgency, food and agriculture innovation must go hand in hand: to shift towards a more sustainable and climate-proof agriculture will require us to adapt our diet, rethink and anticipate which crops we need, and where and how we should grow them. And these changes need to happen very soon.
Problematic diet
Currently, four crops dominate agriculture lands globally – wheat, rice, soybean, and maize. These four are indicative of the widespread adoption of diets based on carbohydrate-rich crops and animal protein (livestock which is often fed soy or corn). The unfair distribution of these plentiful calories has resulted in 462 million adults and 200 million children in the world being underweight, while in other parts of the world almost 2 billion adults and 380 million children are either overweight or obese (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)).
“The world population simply cannot be fed on the meat- and dairy-rich diet currently predominant in high-income countries.” – Aurelie Nowack
As we redesign our global food system to stop hunger and avoid an epidemic of diet-related diseases, it is crucial to ensure we not only produce nutritious food but also that we make solutions available globally. As the world population rises, we’re not only experiencing an increased need for food in terms of the total number of calories required to keep the population healthy – with rapidly growing urban populations and improved incomes, the demand for specifically protein-rich foods is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, the world population simply cannot be fed on the meat- and dairy-rich diet currently predominant in high-income countries. Animal proteins as a group are the least planet-friendly protein choice available to us, requiring huge amounts of resources to produce – including land, water, and feed – while driving greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and zoonotic diseases.
Reducing the demand for animal products needs to come from two fronts: discouraging people from adopting this ‘Western’ diet in the first place; and encouraging cultures who currently adhere to it to switch to more plant-based proteins. Unfortunately, progress is likely to be slow: to illustrate, a recent survey by the European Investment Bank concluded that the percentage of Europeans who would find it easy to give up meat is a measly 16%.
Efforts are underway to help consumer adoption of protein alternatives along. There are more vegetarian options on supermarket shelves than ever before, with animal products replaced by plant-, fungi-, and even insect-based foods. But to drive widespread adoption, the commodities required to produce these new products will need to be made available on a large scale – intensive but sustainable production will be key. Companies like Belgian start-up Protealis are working hard to improve sustainable plant protein production – predicting local needs and breeding new seeds before the farmers even ask for it.
For the time being, livestock will clearly remain a major part of our agricultural industry, which means that parallel efforts to improve the sustainability of meat, egg, and dairy production is essential. This also includes improving the health and well-being of the animals – as Belgian start-up Animab is doing with oral antibodies for livestock – for both ethical reasons and prevention of future pandemics triggered by zoonotic diseases or antimicrobial resistance.
VCs have appetite for agrifood innovation
Redesigning our food system – to combat climate change, provide food security, and improve human health – is becoming more relevant by the day. It’s a promising sign that irrespective of the state of the world economy, substantial investments are taking place in this sector. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting market instability, 2020 was a record year for VC agrifood investments, with over $30 billion spent on new initiatives. Which makes it all the more astounding that investments in the following year increased by a further 85%, with VCs injecting $51.7 billion into new agri-food innovations in 2021. The trend is set to continue in 2022, despite the Ukraine-Russia conflict impacting the agri-food sector.
As indicated by the VC interest, there are numerous business opportunities to be found in the sector. Many solutions are being developed by academic labs, start-ups, or within large companies, aiming to improve everything from the way we exploit crops to livestock, fisheries, and forestry. Innovations include novel crops varieties adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses; new approaches to fertilization, plant health, weed control, and vertical farming; digital technology to help breeders and farmers; carbon farming; reducing waste and valorizing waste- and side- streams (to name but a few). The number of agri-food start-ups is growing fast, fuelled by specialized incubators like biotope by VIB.
There is plenty of room for the many approaches being developed, as we will need a plethora of creative solutions to tackle this challenge. It bears mentioning though that greenwashing and impact washing are increasingly problematic – many start-ups in the agri-food sector will claim to have a profound effect on the environment, and quantifying their actual impact is difficult. Of course many of them genuinely do, which is why we – as investors active in sustainable agriculture – need to go beyond the claims of environmental activities and ESG scores and assess potential investments on an even deeper level.
Examining all these ongoing efforts, it’s clear that there are numerous technologies in development that together can provide solutions to the crisis facing the world’s agricultural industries and food systems. Currently, there are still barriers preventing progress, which require innovative regulations and a change in consumer mindset. If these novel technologies are to have a potent impact, their deployment and adoption needs to be accelerated further. Investors, innovators, scientists, and governments all need to come together to drive this change.
Ghent, Belgium, 4 October 2022 – V-Bio Ventures announces the successful close of a EUR 23 million Series A financing round in Sibylla Biotech. The company is developing an innovative avenue for drug discovery by enabling the targeting of proteins while they are still folding. This paradigm shift in drug design opens the possibility of treating previously undruggable targets in a wide range of therapeutic areas.
Sibylla’s proprietary approach – Pharmacological Protein Inactivation by Folding Intermediate Targeting (PPI-FIT) – enables the design of small-molecule drugs called Folding Interfering Degraders (FIDs). These FIDs are a novel class of drugs capable of binding to folding intermediates, a breakthrough for diseases where the native proteins currently aren’t targetable. To identify these intermediate structures, the company has developed an algorithm to simulate protein folding and identify potential binding pockets for FIDs. The Series A funding will help Sibylla to further develop its technology, expand its therapeutic pipeline, and advance at least one program through preclinical and IND-enabling studies.
Lead investor V-Bio Ventures is joined by an international syndicate of specialized life sciences investors, with participation from Seroba Life Sciences, 3B Future Health, Claris Ventures, CDP Venture Capital, VI Partners, Indaco Venture Partners, as well as the company’s seed investor, Vertis SGR. With the Series A close, Sibylla’s board will include Ward Capoen from V-Bio Ventures, Bruno Montanari from Seroba, Ciro Spedaliere from Claris, and Marianne Bjordal from 3BFuture Health.
Lidia Pieri, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sibylla Biotech: “Sibylla Biotech is bringing a unique and highly differentiated approach to the protein degradation field opening up a range of targets previously considered undruggable. We have gained the support of a strong group of expert investors and the capital to advance a lead candidate through IND-enabling studies, expand our protein folding simulation technology platform and bring additional expertise to our team. I would like to thank all of Sibylla employees, founders and supporters for enabling our achievements so far.”
Ward Capoen, Partner at V-Bio Ventures: “Sibylla’s novel approach has already demonstrated that it can unlock a new category of targets with the potential to translate these into a robust pipeline of small molecule candidates for an unlimited range of indications. We are excited to support Sibylla Biotech’s vision to transform the protein degradation landscape.”
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Sibylla is disrupting the protein degradation landscape by applying a novel mechanism of action that interferes with protein folding and thereby suppresses the expression of a disease-relevant protein. Through their protein folding simulation technology platform, Sibylla identifies relevant and previously unexplorable folding intermediates for protein targets that are currently considered undruggable in their native state. The company is developing a proprietary pipeline of small molecule folding interfering degraders (FIDs) that can address a range of therapeutic areas.
Sibylla Biotech was established as a spin-off company based on a multidisciplinary scientific collaboration between the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics, the University of Trento and the University of Perugia, which together co-funded the collaboration with the Telethon Foundation ETS. Vertis SGR funded the breakthrough discovery technology resulting from the collaboration, enabling the initial validation of Sibylla’s technology. https://www.sibyllabiotech.it/
V-Bio Ventures is an independent venture capital firm specialized in building and financing young, innovative life sciences companies. V-Bio Ventures was established in 2015 and works closely with Belgium-based VIB, one of the world’s premier life science institutes. The fund invests throughout Europe in start-up and early-stage companies with high growth potential focusing on technologies that provide transformational improvements in the biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and agricultural sectors. https://v-bio.ventures
Venture capitalists have a vital role to play in guiding our planet’s future. By investing in technological advances that remediate environmental ruination, enable adaptation to new conditions, and heal challenging diseases, VC funds can help improve the world while also benefiting their bottom line. But there is an even bolder approach available to VCs who really want to do good: influencing governments by earmarking funds for advocacy groups.
The world has turned to reveal a rapidly changing environment created by global climate change. Record-breaking heatwaves, crop-decimating droughts, and increases in infectious diseases are just a few of the cascading effects brought on from anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
The greenhouse gas effect has manifested exceedingly warm nights and unseasonably hot days. Heatwaves are baking Europe with increased frequency and at temperatures that were not expected until 2050. Heat-related casualties are some of the immediate human impacts and erratic precipitation patterns will leave millions without food. This summer, Italy has suffered its worst drought in at least 70 years and the crop harvest is already being impacted. In the not-too-distant future, food is at risk of becoming nutritionally deplete, as increased CO2 will produce bigger plants without the concomitant nourishment. Together, we can expect worsening global malnutrition and loss of life.
“Record-breaking heatwaves, crop-decimating droughts, and increases in infectious diseases are just a few of the cascading effects brought on from anthropogenic CO2 emissions.”
The predicted increases in daily average temperatures are also leading to a rise in the occurrence of infectious diseases. Humid environments accelerate the replication of pathogenic bacteria and facilitate distribution of fungal spores that can detrimentally impact human health. Diseases that were previously thought to be tropical are also beginning to migrate north. If the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is any lesson, governments should prioritize testing, treatment, and prevention policies to preempt health deficits.
More support for sustainable startups
The latest IPCC report details how tipping points that render changes to earth’s climate irreversible have already been passed, and that others are almost certain to be toppled. The report encourages mitigation of emissions and warming, but importantly, it also puts forward adaptation strategies to this new normal. In doing so, the report effectively lays a roadmap of opportunity for venture capitalists wanting to invest in a brighter future. VCs can start every investment on the right foot by selectively engaging with companies that employ ESG charters: Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria that set a standard for the company’s behavior.
In addition to companies with ESG charters, VCs should also start paying more attention to startups that aim to reduce waste in healthcare. US healthcare alone contributes 10% of the country’s total emissions – if US healthcare were its own country, it would be the 7th worst polluter worldwide. However, reducing the energy consumption, emissions, and waste of global healthcare superstructures is attainable through the adoption of environmentally friendly principles.
“VCs can start every investment on the right foot by selectively engaging with companies that employ ESG charters: Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria that set a standard for the company’s behavior.”
VCs specializing in medical biotechs can abate future health disasters by investing in companies that are tackling conditions expected to dominate the future disease landscape. These include startups working on: pulmonary and inflammatory diseases triggered by pollution; improved vaccine stability, adaptability, and efficacy; and desperately needed novel antibiotics.
Funds focusing on ag- and foodtech solutions can meanwhile hone in on startups producing nutritionally replete and environmentally robust plants to ensure people stay healthy and well-fed despite the world’s changes. Examples of technologies that support plant growth include next-generation bio-based fertilizers and soil microbiome enhancers. Companies that produce new plant varieties via genetic engineering or clever breeding programs can also help feed the burgeoning human population by facilitating crop adaptation to new or extreme climates. Meanwhile, on the high-tech end of the scale, carbon fixing microbes like microalgae are already being used to produce protein for animal feed and human food alike. Such strategies to capture CO2 and generate commodities are interesting, but we do still need a full lifecycle analysis to ensure they are sustainable in the long-term.
Influencing governments for good
In addition to VC investments, government support will also be critical for these companies to succeed on the scale needed for global impact. Thankfully, governing bodies are currently paying more attention than ever to the planet’s sustainability and its importance to our species’ survival. But this interest must be sustained and emboldened in the face of climate change deniers and individuals acting in bad faith. VCs and their limited partners (LPs) can help here, too. By attaching sustainability requirements to LP commitments and ESG guidelines for all VC investments, we can preferentially direct investments towards climate-friendly entrepreneurs.
There is also an even bolder and more lucrative approach: VCs can earmark funds for climate, health, and agriculture advocacy groups encouraging government action. For example, in 2020 VC funding reached $130 billion in the USA – 1000 times greater than the amount of money spent on oil and gas lobby groups in the country that same year. And yet, these lobby groups enabled $180 billion in subsidies and $4 billion in profits for their clients that same year. Such numbers demonstrate the enormous potential VC investment priorities can have on their portfolio, return on investment, and the greater good.
The costs of unabated climate change are expected to soar to trillions of dollars per year, with the financial burden lying heaviest on the shoulders of global governments. To avoid these astronomical costs, ESG policy must become economic policy, but this change in government priorities would lead to a financial blow in the short term. By investing in groups advocating for a healthy, renewable, and well-fed future, as well as the companies developing these solutions, VCs can do their part to help create a better world while also improving their bottom line.
Closing on € 30 million, AstriVax has raised the largest amount of seed capital in the history of spin-offs linked to Belgium-based university KU Leuven.
• The funding round was led by V-Bio Ventures and Fund+. The other investors are Flanders Future TechFund, Thuja Capital, Ackermans & van Haaren, Mérieux Equity Partners (via OMX Europe Venture Fund), BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity, and the KU Leuven Gemma Frisius Fund.
Leuven, Belgium, 25 August 2022 – Closing on € 30 million, AstriVax has raised the largest amount of seed capital in the history of KU Leuven spin-offs. The company will draw on technology developed at the KU Leuven Rega Institute to develop novel vaccines that are easy to produce, have reduced cold chain requirements, and offer broad and long-lasting protection against various viruses and other pathogens.
The funding round was led by V-Bio Ventures and Fund+. The other investors are Flanders Future TechFund, Thuja Capital, Ackermans & van Haaren, Mérieux Equity Partners (via OMX Europe Venture Fund), BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity, and the KU Leuven Gemma Frisius Fund.
AstriVax will use the seed capital to bring their first thermostable yellow fever vaccine to the clinical development stage and to further develop their pipeline vaccine candidates – one to prevent rabies and one to treat chronic hepatitis B.
The company will also continue to build its highly innovative, first-in-class plug-and-play vaccine platform based on the ground-breaking work of co-founders Professor Johan Neyts and Kai Dallmeier, PhD, from the KU Leuven Rega Institute. The versatile technology of AstriVax can be used to develop a wide range of vaccines to prevent and treat infectious diseases. AstriVax aims to address major challenges in vaccinology, such as the duration of protection and the ease of production. As the vaccines will no longer require a strict cold chain, getting them from the factory to patients will be easier, even in tropical and subtropical regions.
Hanne Callewaert, PhD, will lead the company as CEO. She has over 15 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including several leadership positions in companies such as GSK Vaccines and Oxurion. She said: “I feel privileged to work with the world-renowned team of Professor Johan Neyts and Kai Dallmeier to spin out this vaccine platform technology that holds such broad potential in addressing unmet medical needs. Being funded and supported by a strong consortium of investors will bring AstriVax’s technology into clinical validation. I see this as a strong confirmation of the confidence in the potential of the technology, team, and collaborations.”
Professor Johan Neyts (KU Leuven), co-founder, said: “After more than ten years of hard work and dedication, our academic team has developed and refined a novel, potent, and versatile vaccine approach. Kai Dallmeier and I are thrilled that AstriVax will bring our revolutionary vaccine technology to clinical development. This will significantly increase the number of people we can protect and treat against dreadful infectious diseases on all continents. We are also excited to work with CEO Hanne Callewaert, with the support of an enthusiastic and experienced consortium of investors and advice from authorities in the field.”
Shelley Margetson, managing partner at V-Bio Ventures, said: “We are impressed with the quality of the scientific work that has been done by Johan Neyts and Kai Dallmeier over the past years at KU Leuven. Turning academic excellence into valuable products for society through the creation of spin-out companies is at the heart of V-Bio Ventures.“
Caroline Goddeeris, PhD, principal at Fund+, added: “We greatly appreciate the expertise of the founders and team at Astrivax, and are convinced that the thermostable plug-and-play vaccine platform has great potential to prevent and treat a large array of diseases through the remarkable immune response it elicits. Fund+ is honoured to be part of the Astrivax story and to contribute to the lives of people and patients worldwide.”
AstriVax will be headquartered at the BioHub in Haasrode (Leuven), Belgium.
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As the number one European university for innovation, KU Leuven actively invests in launching innovative technologies in the commercial market by creating spin-off companies, securing and licensing intellectual property, and collaborating with industrial partners. KU Leuven supports researchers and students in transforming their innovative ideas and technologies into commercial products and services that impact people’s lives across the globe. As such, KU Leuven encourages young entrepreneurs to develop a solid business plan, validate the market, and build a coherent team. Since its creation in 1972, KU Leuven Research & Development has supported the creation and growth of 149 spin-off companies, directly employing more than 7,000 people. KU Leuven’s spin-off companies constitute huge economic leverage for the Leuven region. From 2005 to 2021, KU Leuven invested € 21.7 million in its spin-off companies, and € 1.46 billion of external capital was raised. 122 of KU Leuven’s spin-off companies, of which the first was established in 1979, are still active today. Many have a leading international position. Seven spin-off companies have had an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the stock exchange.
Please visit http://lrd.kuleuven.be/en/spinoff for more information.
V-Bio Ventures is an independent venture capital firm specialised in building and financing young, innovative life science companies. V-Bio Ventures was established in 2015 and works closely with Belgium-based VIB, one of the world’s premier life science institutes. The fund invests throughout Europe in start-up and early-stage companies with high growth potential focusing on technologies that provide transformational improvements in the biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and agricultural sectors. V-Bio Ventures’ cornerstone investor is the European Investment Fund (EIF). EIF’s contribution is supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe.
Fund+ is a Belgian venture capital firm that invests in innovative European Life Sciences companies developing drugs, medical devices and diagnostics, with a strong focus on patient-centric approaches and major unmet medical needs. With over €200M in assets under management, Fund+ has built a strong track record since 2015, investing in 18 portfolio companies with two major exits. The fund is managed by a specialist team of seasoned life sciences professionals with healthcare industry, corporate finance and strategy consulting experience, supporting companies throughout their growth cycle. The company aims to maintain a leading position in the Life Sciences sector, creating sustainable value for its shareholders and a tangible impact on society.
The Flanders Future Techfund is an early-stage financing fund that wants to meet the financing needs of early technology initiatives of research centres, universities and Flemish spearhead clusters, as well as private parties. Through its investments, the Flanders Future Techfund wants to focus on the valorization of technology developed by Flemish companies, with particular attention to the spearhead domains of Care & Welfare, Digital Transformation and Climate & Sustainability. The Flanders Future Techfund has a fund size of € 75 million and can provide financing from 0.5 to 5 million euros. The Flemish investment company PMV was appointed for the operational management of the Flanders Future Techfund.
Thuja Capital Management (Thuja) manages several venture capital funds aimed at building and scaling companies in the fields of (bio)pharmaceuticals, medtech, and digital health. In addition to generating a financial return for its investors, Thuja’s investments positively impact the health and well-being of patients. Thuja serves physicians and patients worldwide by providing capital to daring entrepreneurs with ground-breaking product concepts locally.
Ackermans & van Haaren (AvH), with offices in Antwerp and Singapore, positions itself as the long-term partner of choice of family businesses and management teams to help build high-performing market leaders and contribute to a more sustainable world. AvH is a diversified group operating in 4 core sectors: Marine Engineering & Contracting, Private Banking, Real Estate and Energy & Resources. AvH also provides growth capital to sustainable businesses, including in the Health Care and Life Sciences industry. At an economic level, the AvH group represented in 2021 a turnover of € 6.0 billion and employed 22,653 people through its share in the participations. AvH is listed on Euronext Brussels and is included in the BEL20 index and the European DJ Stoxx 600 index.
Mérieux Equity Partners (‘MxEP’) is an AMF-accredited management company dedicated to equity investments in the health and nutrition sector. MxEP actively supports entrepreneurs and companies with differentiated products and services, giving them privileged access to its sector expertise and international network. MxEP currently manages over € 1 billion in assets and recently closed its latest Venture Capital fund, OMX Europe Venture Fund, with the co-sponsorship of Korys. www.merieux-partners.com
BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity, the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas Fortis, has been active in the private equity market in Belgium for over 40 years. BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity takes minority stakes and provides mezzanine financing to high-performing medium-sized Belgian companies. In addition, BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity is active as an investor in specialised venture capital and private equity funds present on the Belgian market. Direct participations of BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity include Studio 100, reMynd, eTheRNA, Quality Assistance and Konings.
The Gemma Frisius Fund (GFF) is a seed capital fund established in 1997 as a joint venture between KU Leuven, KBC Private Equity, and BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity. It combines the research and technology transfer expertise of the university with the financial and investment expertise of the two financial partners. GFF provides seed capital in the early development phases of innovative, research-based spin-off companies originating from all technology domains and supports their growth process.
http://lrd.kuleuven.be/en/spinoff/gemma-frisius-fund.
Ghent, Belgium, 31 August 2022 – V-Bio Ventures portfolio company Biodol Therapeutics, a French biotech company developing next-generation neuropathic pain treatments, announces the nomination of its first preclinical candidate. The company aims to advance into IND-Enabling studies, initiating Phase 1 studies in the second half of 2023.
Neuropathic pain is a chronic condition with only few treatment options to date. Limited efficacy and debilitating side effects are common with current therapeutics. Biodol Therapeutics is tackling neuropathic pain in a novel way, by targeting the neuro-immune interface. The compound has shown exceptional activity in a wide range of preclinical pain models combined with an excellent safety profile.
Biodol Therapeutics has identified FLT3 (a Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK)), as a key player for triggering and maintaining chronic neuropathic pain. Biodol Therapeutics has shown that inhibiting FLT3 reduces the three main symptoms of neuropathic pain (allodynia, pain hypersensitivity, and spontaneous pain), without affecting normal nervous system functioning. The company’s candidate is a small-molecule allosteric FLT3 inhibitor, suitable for chronic oral administration and without the safety limitations of less specific intracellular kinase inhibitors.
The company has gathered a highly favorable pharmacology and safety data package, with validation in multiple pathophysiological models of neuropathic pain. Following the validation by external experts – and thanks to its Series A fundraising in 2020 with the support of V-Bio Ventures – the company can now start Regulatory Preclinical Development before entering clinical phases.
The attractive profile of the compound enables the company to move forward and pursue its program up to its investigational new drug (IND) application. In parallel, Biodol Therapeutics is finalizing its clinical plan together with its network of medical experts. These clinical trials will be funded via a Series B round, expected in 2023.
V-Bio Ventures (www.v-bio.ventures) is an independent venture capital firm specialized in building and financing young, innovative life science companies. V-Bio Ventures was established in 2015 and works closely with Belgium-based VIB, one of the world’s premier life science institutes. The fund invests throughout Europe in start-up and early-stage companies with high growth potential, focusing on technologies that provide transformational improvements in the biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, and agricultural sectors.
Biodol Therapeutics (www.biodol.eu), founded in 2015, develops first-in-class compounds for the treatment of chronic pain (CP). Biodol Therapeutics has identified the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK) FLT3 as a key player for triggering and maintaining the chronic neuropathic pain (NP) state. The company is focused on the development of allosteric inhibitors of the FLT3 receptor for the treatment of chronic pain. Biodol Therapeutics already owns the exclusive rights on a portfolio of 4 patents. The company has been supported by BPI France, Satt AxLR, Inserm Transfert, Region Occitanie, the French National Research Agency, SEMIA Incubator and Montpellier Business and Innovation Centre.
Augustine Therapeutics is a VIB and KU Leuven spin-off developing innovative therapies for peripheral and central nervous system disorders. The company initially focused on treating Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and recently added a major indication to their lead program after finding strong evidence that their drug candidate can also reverse nerve damage caused by chemotherapy. Augustine Therapeutics aims to initiate clinical trials by 2024.
Most people know someone who has gone through chemotherapy. Though the treatment helps rid a person of cancer, patients often suffer from a slew of unwanted side effects. One of the most common of these is chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). This is where nerves in the arms, legs, hands, and feet are damaged, leading to sensory numbness, muscle weakness, and pain. Sylvain Celanire, CEO of Augustine Therapeutics, explains:
“About 60% of people who receive chemotherapy are affected by CIPN, the symptoms become chronic for 30%–40% of patients. This side effect severely affects many people’s quality of life, even after they’ve gone into remission from the cancer.”
Augustine Therapeutics is developing a compound to not only alleviate the symptoms of CIPN, but also to reverse the nerve damage at the axonal level (axonopathy) altogether. The company traces its origins back to the VIB-KU Leuven lab of Prof. Ludo Van Den Bosch, where researchers discovered that molecules inhibiting the HDAC6 enzyme have the capacity to repair damaged axons and neurons, and restore nerve conduction defects.
Van Den Bosch realized that HDAC6 inhibitors could have therapeutic applications in a range of diseases in both the central and peripheral nervous system. So in 2019, he founded Augustine Therapeutics with a seed financing round of €4.2 million supported by VIB, V-Bio Ventures, and other investors.
Prevention: even better than a cure
The company’s initial therapeutic focus was on developing HDAC6 inhibitors for the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), a debilitating genetic disorder where peripheral nerves become damaged over time. Now, studies have shown that their proprietary HDAC6 inhibitors have a huge therapeutic potential in both CMT and CIPN.
“The huge advantage is that our HDAC6 inhibitors are able to not only reverse the axonal damage, but also prevent it from happening in the first place,” says Celanire. “We’ve unambiguously demonstrated this in animal models and human tissue models for CMT, and now validated it for CIPN. Both nerve function and axonal damage is rescued through electromyography and biomarker measures, that are routinely monitored in patients . The protective aspect would be especially valuable for chemotherapy patients – many of whom will develop CIPN during the course of their cancer treatments – and could last for months or years.”
“The real blockbuster potential of our lead candidate lies in its ability to both prevent disease but also reverse the damage already done.” – Sylvain Celanire
A large number of companies have tried to develop first generation of HDAC6 inhibitors in the past, but faced liabilities due to a chemical functionality known to be genotoxic. This precluded further development for chronic diseases such as CMT, which require life-long treatments. While several biotech companies have now shifted to alternative chemical series, limitations have arisen, including modest efficacy on critical motor function parameters and signs of chemical instability, states Celanire:
“Our company is developing a completely novel class of HDAC6 inhibitors that are selective, specific, orally available and extremely well tolerated over weeks of treatment in preclinical disease models. Our robust intellectual property portfolio comprises patent applications not only on composition of matter but also on the use of HDAC6 in CMT, granted in Europe and other countries. This gives us a lot of traction from local and international investors as well as pharmaceutical companies, with several already in active due diligence.”
Moving into the clinic
Augustine Therapeutics is now working towards the first clinical trials in both CMT and CIPN. To support the next phase of activities, a Clinical Advisory Board has been set up with global experts on small-molecule therapy trials in CMT, CIPN, and neurodegenerative disorders (e.g. ALS). In anticipation of future clinical work, the company has also established close connections with CMT patient advocacy groups in Europe (the European CMT Federation) and US, as well as with local and European clinical centers, to facilitate patient enrollments and trials.”
“With a pipeline-in-a-product approach, our drug presents a potentially life-changing breakthrough for patients around the world.” – Sylvain Celanire
Recently, Augustine Therapeutics appointed Gerhard Koenig – CEO of Arkuda Therapeutics in the US – as Chair of the Board. The company is also expanding the team and its biology platform, aiming to move into offices and labs in the new bioincubator in Leuven by the end of 2022. To support all this growth and development, the company is currently raising a Series A financing round. Celanire has high hopes for the future:
“With a pipeline-in-a-product approach, our drug presents a potentially life-changing breakthrough for patients around the world. Though we’re initially targeting CMT and CIPN, there are many other disorders of the peripheral and central nervous systems where our approach may be of use. We have recently discovered novel HDAC6 inhibitors capable of reaching the brain to treat severe life-threatening diseases such as ALS. The real blockbuster potential of our lead candidate lies in its ability to both prevent disease but also reverse the damage already done.”
The stock market value of biotech companies has been crashing lately, bitterly reminiscent of the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s. Should investors and startups be panicking? Or might there be a silver lining to this stormy cloud?
As early-stage biotech investors, we cannot help but keep an eye on the public markets, but opening our stock app has lately become a painful experience. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI), which tracks the value of biotech companies publicly listed on the stock market, is down more than 30% this year. And it’s not just biotech stocks that are crashing: the value of high growth companies with negative cash flow (e.g. software, tech, crypto) is falling hard, in some cases down by 90% from pandemic highs.
Echoes of the dot-com bubble
Why the crash? Well for starters, inflation and quantitative tightening in the US have had dramatic effects on valuations of growth companies. But the factors are many: the pandemic was rife with speculation in growth stocks, SPACs, and crypto, not to mention the war in Ukraine and supply chain shocks have all dented investor sentiment. Since valuations in Europe were never as lofty as in the US, the effects are slightly more muted on our side of the pond but present nonetheless.
To find a comparable decline in the biotech sector, we need to go back to the burst of the so-called ‘dot-com bubble’ in 2000-2002. The crash was preceded by a period of excessive speculation in internet-related companies the late 1990s, where venture capitalists poured money into startups in what essentially amounted to fad-based funding. When many of these ‘dot-com’ companies failed to turn a profit, the bubble burst. Dot-com, tech, and biotech stocks all nosedived, taking the whole market with them: by the time it had bottomed out, the Nasdaq index had fallen by nearly 80%.
This crash means less focus on new deals, and less support for new startups and spinoffs in the biotech sector.
Memories are short: the majority of investors working in the sector today weren’t around for this catastrophe and have never know anything but a bull market. But the stock market crash triggered by the burst of the dot-com bubble reverberated across the world, triggering a period of a bear market. Until today, it marked the worst period ever for biotech stocks. The Nasdaq itself took 15 years to regain its peak. As a direct result of the crash, many companies went bankrupt and numerous jobs were lost.
Consequences of the current crash
Should we be panicking? How will this drop in the value of biotech stocks affect people in the life sciences sector? And will the problems faced by public companies on the stock market trickle down to the privately owned companies and startups in the private markets?
It bears mentioning that, although the overall market and tech shares are both down, there are marked differences between the current situation and that of the early 2000s. A big brake on the panic pedal is that many of the most valuable publicly traded tech companies today are actually turning a profit, contrasting with the dot-com era companies that were just promising to do so eventually. Although tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon have all seen their shares tumble, it doesn’t mean they are going bankrupt – investors simply aren’t finding their growth prospects as compelling as before.
Founders and CEOs are being told to reduce spend, stretch their cash further, and survive until the market recovers.
As a result of the current crash though, we are already seeing a change in the general atmosphere, with stories of inflation and supply chain shocks making front page news. These effects also go beyond general sentiment – the public and private markets are inextricably linked. Generalist investors typically retreat from specialized sectors during a downturn. Crossover investors (active both pre- and post-IPO) have covenants on public-to-private market ratios, so with their public portfolio decimated, they are often not allowed to increase their investments in the illiquid private market. Private investors (like many venture capital funds), with less support from their crossover co-investors, consequently need to make reservations to ensure their existing portfolio companies weather the storm. Subsequently, this crash means less focus on new deals, and less support for new startups and spinoffs in the biotech sector.
Of course, funds have limited time to deploy their money, so new deals will still get made. But they might take longer than before and the conditions to invest will likely be less attractive than a year ago. This all means the pool of investors for later-stage private companies will be smaller, reducing the number of term sheets and syndication options. Founders and CEOs are being told to reduce spend, stretch their cash further, and survive until the market recovers. Companies with less than 18 months of cash on the balance sheets might face difficult choices. Indeed, we have already begun seeing quite a few restructurings and layoffs in the tech and biotech sector.
Not all doom and gloom
Is it all bad news? Of course not. In a booming environment, capital allocation tends to be a bit messy and undisciplined, with certain ideas getting funded that probably never had a good chance of panning out. This distracts capital – both financial and human – from the good businesses worth supporting. This current cycling in the market allows for the redistribution of money and talent towards ideas that have been vetted more rigorously. The result will likely be fewer, but more successful, outcomes for patients.
These value cycles occur more regularly than you might think, and they are not always linked to market sentiment. For example, the huge boom in immune-oncology drugs a few years ago has already abated somewhat. In those heady days, a huge number of new targets were proposed and funding to tackle them was secured. Now, we are starting to see the clinical evidence for these targets, where some shine (e.g. LAG3) and others have fallen by the wayside (e.g. IDO). This type of shake out – although painful when you’re in the middle of it – is healthy. It forces us to separate the wheat from the chaff. The coming months will certainly not be easy, but in this volatile climate, seasoned executives, well-run companies, and good ideas will no doubt excel.
Belgian start-up Dualyx is developing a novel approach with the potential to treat a wide range of autoimmune disorders. The method uses llama-derived antibodies to flip a master switch and create regulatory T cells, which help restore order to overzealous immune systems.
T cells are an integral part of our immune system, which exist in a variety of subtypes. When our body is threatened by pathogens, CD8+ “killer” T cells attack the invaders and release cytokines to sound the alarm and trigger a full-scale immune response. Meanwhile, CD4+ “helper” T cells support this response by activating other types of cells (like memory B cells).
To stop this reaction from snowballing out of control, regulatory T cells (Tregs) deescalate the aggression. In the heat of the battle, they help immune cells recognize “self” from “other”, preventing the immune system from attacking our own cells. Once the threat has been eliminated, Tregs dampen the immune response to reset our system to the status quo.
“Our aim at Dualyx: expanding Treg populations in vivo to restore the immune system’s natural balance.” – Wouter Verhoeven
Autoimmune disorders – like rheumatoid arthritis (RA), type 1 diabetes, or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – are often the result of an imbalance between these aggressive T cell types and the pacifying Tregs. Wouter Verhoeven, CEO of Belgian start-up Dualyx, explains:
“When Tregs aren’t there to stop the cascading immune reaction, or to protect the body’s own cells, you end up with autoimmune diseases. We’ve found that if we increase the number of Tregs, we could bring the body back to a stable condition and have a long-lasting impact on a huge number of debilitating conditions. This is exactly our aim at Dualyx: expanding Treg populations in vivo to restore the immune system’s natural balance.”
A clean target for treating a range of diseases
Dualyx was founded two years ago by CSO Luc Van Rompaey – formerly argenx’ Vice President of Translational Medicine – with a EUR 7 million seed round supported by V-Bio Ventures, BGV, PMV, VIB, HTGF, and GFF. The start-up initially operated as a virtual company but has now set up shop in the VIB Bio-Incubator in Ghent, Belgium. There are three main programs in the pipeline, with technology in-licensed from argenx, VIB, and the University of Würzburg. The lead program is a llama-derived antibody targeting a receptor called TNFR2, Verhoeven shares:
“We’ve created a multivalent antibody that acts as an agonist to TNFR2, a membrane receptor on Treg cells. TNFR2 functions as a master switch, inducing immune suppression by activating and expanding a subpopulation of highly potent and stable Tregs. Although the target itself is well-described, our approach in triggering this anti-inflammatory pathway is unique, and our therapy would be a first-in-class drug.”
“TNFR2 is purely immunosuppressive. What’s more: our approach could have a synergistic effect with TNF-alpha inhibitors like Humira.” – Wouter Verhoeven
Autoimmune treatments are among the world’s top-selling drugs, with blockbusters like Humira and Enbrel raking in tens of billions of dollars each year. Incentivized by such an enormous market, investors have also been giving keen attention to another novel autoimmune approach using IL-2 muteins. Although promising, this technology has yet to succeed in the autoimmune disease clinical trials currently ongoing. The stakes are high: the once-largest licensing deal in biotech history – a USD 3.6 billion agreement between Bristol Myers Squibb and Nektar – recently ended in failure after phase 3 flops in oncology.
“What sets our technology apart from IL-2 muteins and other approaches in the industry is that TNFR2 is a much cleaner target,” says Verhoeven. “The IL-2 receptor is quite complex, and you need to have the right balance to activate it only on the immune-suppressive Tregs. TNFR2, on the other hand, is purely immunosuppressive. What’s more: our approach could have a synergistic effect with TNF-alpha inhibitors like Humira, which are the current first-line treatments for multiple autoimmune diseases.”
Fundraising for future indications
It’s exciting times for the company, which is rapidly expanding its team and gearing up for a Series A financing round. With the IP for this new approach in hand, Dualyx is now in the process of selecting a lead candidate, aiming to enter the clinic in 2024.
“We have fantastic in vivo data for graft-versus-host disease,” Verhoeven enthuses, “and we are exploring other target indications where we also think our technology could be efficacious. Though we have to choose an initial focus, there are many conditions where this technology could be hugely beneficial, including IBD, RA, MS, psoriasis, Graves’ disease, and more. What really excites me about our company is that we have a very interesting target with TNFR2, which we can use to create a powerful immune therapy for doctors treating a wide range of autoimmune diseases. The potential impact is enormous.”