Lyndra Therapeutics has raised $101m in a Series E financing round as the company looks to advance its long-lasting oral therapy pipeline.
The US biopharma company said the round, led by Sarissa Capital with participation from Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Polaris Partners, will support the completion of a pivotal Phase III trial investigating its risperidone candidate LYN-005 in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder patients.
As part of the financing, Sun Pharma will receive an exclusive license to manufacture and market three of Lyndra’s oral weekly candidates in six countries, including Brazil and India. The candidates wrapped in the deal include LYN-005, as well as the company’s formulations of dapagliflozin (LYN-045) for type 2 diabetes and antipsychotic medicine aripiprazole (LYN-006), according to a 21 December press release.
Lyndra develops its long-lasting oral therapies using its LYNX drug delivery platform spun out of MIT. According to the company, it creates medicines that last for a week or longer in oral dosage. Lyndra’s standard-sized capsules house drug-containing elements that maintain their shape in the gastrointestinal tract to enable correct dosage. These then disintegrate when the dosing period is complete. The platform is designed for steady drug release over a seven-day period, with the company eyeing up monthly regimen pills in the future.
Lyndra is nearing completion of a pivotal phase III trial investigating the pharmacokinetics and safety/tolerability profile of LYN-005. The LYN-005-C-301 study (NCT05779241) is slated to enrol 90 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The first participant was dosed in May 2023.
Lyndra Therapeutics’ President and CEO Jessica Ballinger said: “We appreciate the support our investors are providing as we complete our risperidone phase 3 trials and continue the development of our pipeline of oral weekly therapies through this round of financing
Lyndra has received funding from AbbVie, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. In July 2019, Gilead Sciences partnered with Lyndra to develop long-acting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drugs.
Prior to the Series E round, Lyndra has raised a total of $214.05m through venture financing, according to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Centre.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
In September 2023, a Lyndra spokesperson told various outlets the company was laying off 23% of its workforce to trim operations costs.
