Bionyra Pharma, a Paris-based biotech developing next-generation antibody therapies for treating inflammatory conditions, has exited stealth mode with what the company says is the largest ever biotech series A funding in France.
The $165 million financing round was led by Sofinnova Partners and Jeito Capital, international venture capital firms headquartered in Paris. The company has also received funding from Sanofi Ventures and several other investors.
Bionyra is entering a competitive space. However, CEO and cofounder Frédéric Marrache, previously a VP and global project head of clinical development in the immunology and inflammation space at Sanofi, believes more antibody therapies are still needed.
“Despite all our best efforts across the industry, there’s still very meaningful remaining and unmet medical need in the field of immune-driven inflammatory diseases,” he says. “If you look at the most severe patients . . . the response rate is no more than 50% across diseases . . . I think we need to do things better.”
Frédéric Marrache, Bionyra Pharma co-founder and CEO Credit:
Bionyra Pharma
The company is hoping to succeed by taking a multipronged approach and by picking targets with remaining unmet need, as well as focusing on getting to the clinic quickly. Bionyra has already licensed three candidate therapies.
BYN-001, an interleukin (IL)-25 monoclonal antibody from US biotech NovaRock Biotherapeutics, designed to target atopic dermatitis and potentially other inflammatory diseases, will soon enter clinical trials.
The other two candidates, BYN-002 and BYN-003, both licensed from Chinese company TrueLab Biopharmaceutical, are currently in Phase 1 trials. BYN-002 is a TL1A-targeting monoclonal antibody, and BYN-003 is a bispecific antibody therapy targeting both TL1A and IL-23p19.
The company plans to focus on treating IBD with its bispecific candidate BYN-003 but says it is keeping its options open for BYN-002. “IBD is an option, but . . . we know that the biology of TL1A is relevant across multiple indications,” Marrache says.
For all three candidates, the company is using nonproprietary extended half-life technology to allow longer activity time and lower dosing, both of which are attractive properties for chronic disease treatments. The lower dosing also makes it easier to combine with other therapies, which could be useful in the future.
It remains to be seen if Bionyra can be successful in an already crowded space. TL1A is viewed as one of the most exciting new targets in IBD because it seems to be involved in both inflammation and fibrosis. No antibodies targeting this protein have been approved, but Merck & Co, Sanofi/Teva, Roche, and Spyre all have TL1A antibodies in mid- to late-stage development. “There’s a lot of people looking into it, but I think it is driven by the fact that everyone really sees a real need there,” Marrache emphasizes.
IL-25 antibodies are at an earlier stage, so Bionyra has a greater chance to be first to market with BYN-001. “I don’t think that any other molecule is really competing with ours,” Marrache says. “We believe IL-25 is really the most exciting emerging mechanism of action against atopic dermatitis.”
