In general, when we speak of the sciences of life, we think of the development of biomedicines addressing directly the evolution of the disease, with lower costs and high risks. Theranexus is the opposite of this strategy. The biotech lyon has announced to aim for an ipo on Euronext Paris on 30 October to reach a valuation of 47.5 million euros and a capital increase of € 18 million. With this sum, it will develop associations of molecules (of which the patent is in the public domain) to address the symptoms of several neurological diseases.
The biotech lyonnaise wants to reduce the effects of drowsiness of the narcolepsioe during the day with the THN 102 (in phase II in this indication), a treatment combining Modafinil and the Flecïnide. It also aims to launch another phase II (end of 2017) to the same side-effect, this time in Parkinson’s patients. For the loss of memory, reasoning and orientation in Alzheimer’s disease, it is a combination of two other molecules: Donepezil and mefloquine. The first clinical trials should start next year for this indication.
Objective: to exceed the standard treatments
The company launched in 2013 hope to improve the effects of existing treatments and to become the standard first-line treatment, without revolutionize the care of the disease. Make treatments symptoms more effective rather than tackle the disease appears to be a strategy a little ambitious on paper.
But it is “dice-risky and demand very little means, with a reduced development time”, ahead of Thierry Lambert, chief financial officer of the company. Theranexus reminds us that failures to slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases are recurring. No medication has been approved on the market against Alzheimer’s disease for the past fifteen years. And treatments on the market regularly polemics. The High authority of health deem it ineffective and called for their déremboursement.
Theranexus seeks licenses to several hundreds of millions of euros
In addition, the biotech lyon does not go as far as the marketing of its treatments. It intends to dispose of at intermediate stages at the major laboratories. Theranexus believes that its treatment could be blockbusters (over one billion dollars of annual sales), and sell very expensive, in the hundreds of millions of dollars or even a billion dollars. Theranexus to justify those numbers, citing recent transactions. And especially that of Chase pharma, which has finalized a deal in Alzheimer’s disease with Allergan, a billion dollars for a combination of drugs.
And if the therapeutic methods addressing the development of these neurological diseases arrive on the market before ? Franck Mouthon, Ceo of Theranexus, is confident: “The association of a drug addressing the evolution of the disease with a treatment for its symptoms would be quite possible”.
