A Dutch biotech creating nasal sprays to protect against the flu and coronavirus has raised an additional $70 million and acquired a nimble Singapore startup to help with its mission.
Leiden-based Leyden Labs will use the money to get into Phase 2 this year with a nasal spray that incorporates a pan-influenza antibody
licensed from Johnson & Johnson
, enter clinical testing with a spray for multiple coronaviruses (not just SARS) and prepare for a potential H5N1 pandemic, CEO Koenraad Wiedhaup told
Endpoints News
.
While multiple flu shots and Covid-19 vaccines already exist, Leyden Labs believes more needs to be done to continue protecting people from the viruses. And rather than making mRNA vaccines that caught the world’s attention in 2020, or developing other forms of traditional shots, it’s instead hoping to deliver the protective antibodies directly into the nose with a non-vaccine spray. Nasal spray vaccines are being
explored
by other researchers.
“What we have currently is just not enough. Vaccines — I take my shots, they’re very important — but it protects too late. What we’re doing with our intranasal antibodies is actually trying to stop the infection before it really starts,” Wiedhaup said.
Infectious disease biotechs have struggled to gain investor attention in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Another coronavirus biotech,
Aerium Therapeutics
, shut down last summer.
Red Queen Therapeutics
and others are still forging ahead.
ClavystBio, set up by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek, co-led the round with Polaris Partners.
In an interview, Wiedhaup said Singapore has been a model country for pandemic preparedness. The four-person company it acquired, CoV Biotechnology, will continue operating in Singapore, he said. Overall, the company has about 80 employees, the CEO added. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Other investors
include Qiming Venture Partners, GV (Google Ventures), Casdin Capital, F-Prime, Byers Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Invus and Bluebird Ventures.
On the surface, the new round appears small compared to Leyden’s $140 million Series B in January 2022, but Wiedhaup said the startup still had a “significant amount of money still in the bank” from the fundraise three years ago. And the $70 million is actually higher than Leyden sought, he added.
It has funding to get through a large portion of the pan-influenza Phase 2 trial, the CEO said.
The biotech hasn’t yet released Phase 1 data on its pan-influenza nasal spray, dubbed CR9114, but Wiedhaup said it has “achieved these concentrations in the areas that we want, well above target levels, so that gives us all the confidence to then continue with Phase 2.” That trial is anticipated to start later this year.
With regard to coronaviruses, the company is currently designing a Phase 1 trial. “We’re working with an antibody that can protect against multiple if not all, different coronaviruses,” the CEO said.
The company
hired
Jintanat Ananworanich, former Moderna executive director of clinical development, as its chief medical officer last year.
And, with the backdrop of the US’
first human fatal case
of H5N1 earlier this week, Leyden could get into avian bird flu, as well.
“We see that our antibody, CR9114, can protect very well against H5, and not just one or a few H5 clades, which a vaccine could only do, but actually the full H5 subtype,” Wiedhaup said.
“We are placing a lot of emphasis on being ready for no matter when or how avian flu will hit. It’s already hitting us, but how it will hit in a bigger way,” the CEO said.
Leyden is discussing with “multiple potential partners” around avian flu, he said.