TIMP-GLIA

Dive Brief:Biotechnology startup Cour Pharmaceuticals has raised $105 million to advance a portfolio of medicines for autoimmune diseases.The startups funding was co-led by Alpha Wave Ventures and Lumira Ventures and involved large drugmakers Roche, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb. The cash will support Cours plans to develop nanoparticle drugs that can reprogram the immune systems of people with inflammatory disorders, said CEO John Puisis.Cour already has drugs in mid-stage testing for celiac disease and the rare liver disorder primary biliary cholangitis that are partnered with Takeda and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, respectively. The funding will help generate proof-of-concept data for its wholly-owned programs for myasthenia gravis and Type 1 diabetes.Dive Insight:Typically, biotech startups are far from clinical testing when they raise their first venture funding. But Cour, which was spun out around research at Northwestern University more than a decade ago, traveled a different path.In 2015, the company partnered with Takeda to develop a drug for celiac and, four years later, sold full rightsto the Japanese pharmaceutical giant. In 2021, Ironwood secured an option to buy Cours next drug, for PBC.Those deals traded away some of the potential financial upside to the companys two first medicines. But they also gave Cour cash without it giving up equity, as well as time to advance other programs in a non-traditional way, said Puisis, who co-founded the biotech.From the outside looking in, comparatively, we may appear more like a later-stage Series B or Series C company, he said.Cour aims to stand out with a new approach in fields that have recently grown crowded. A number of cell therapy developers are targeting myasthenia gravis and Type 1 diabetes, two autoimmune conditions that require chronic therapy. Many are already in testing with treatments meant to deliver lasting benefit.Cour hopes for long-lasting effects, too, but via a different method. Its developed a nanoparticle to carry proteins the body has mistakenly identified as harmful. The particles are absorbed by specialized cells that “reintroduce“ those proteins to the T cells responsible for the body's adaptive immune response.Because of the way the nanoparticles are designed, Cour says, the cellular reintroduction convinces the T cells to break off their attack, reestablishing immune tolerance of the misidentified proteins. Effectively, the approach is reprogramming the immune system“ without compromising its overall function, added Puisis.The company does have some early evidence to support its claims. Phase 2 results for its celiac treatment were published in the journal Gastroenterology in 2021. After treatment with the drug, now called TAK-101, patients were evaluated for celiac disease and many would be below the threshold for diagnosis, Puisis said. Preclinical research has also been published in the Journal of Immunology.But Puisis acknowledges those findings are early. Its unclear how long the effects of Cours therapies might last.We are still learning about the duration of effect, Puisis said, but we are very encouraged by the data generated to date.Gwendolyn Wu contributed reporting. '

Takeda Pharmaceuticals has for exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) using a panel of selected Innate Pharma antibodies against an undisclosed target, with a primary focus in Celiac disease. Under the terms of the deal, France-based Innate will receive $5 million upfront and is eligible to receive up to $410 million in future development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus royalties on potential net sales of any commercial product resulting from the license. Japan-based Takeda already has three for celiac disease in phase 2 trials — TAK-101, TAK-227 andTAK-062.TAK-101, licensed from in 2019, is an immune-modifying nanoparticle that contains gliadin proteins designed to promote immune tolerance to gluten by preventing gliadin-specific T-cell activation. TAK-227, born from a with Zedira and Dr. Falk Pharma, isa selective, oral small molecule designed to inhibit tissue transglutaminase.TAK-062, picked up in the of PvP Biologics, is an enzyme designed to break down gluten proteins in the stomach. While applying ADC modalities to celiac disease is relatively new territory,ADC deals in the oncology field have been exploding.BioNTech just with China-based biotech DualityBio to co-develop and commercialize two cancer ADC candidates.A few weeks ago, revealed a $43 billion deal toacquire the ADC technology pioneer,Seagen. The following day, Synaffix and MacroGenics that they had expanded their next-gen ADCs partnership. , AstraZeneca signed a potential $1.1 billion deal withChina-based KYM Biosciencesfor a potential first-in-class ADC targeting Claudin 18.2