Alentis Therapeutics debuts with CHF12.5m

BPI France, Schroder Adveq and German High-Tech Gründerfond contributed to the financing. The Basel-based company builds on targeting a yet undisclosed target with an antibody candidate to stop or prevent liver fibrosis late stages including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Co-founder Thomas Baumert, a hepatitis C specialist from University Strassbourg, discoverd the target using a patented liver cell-based platform mimicking fibrosis. BaseLaunch, a healthcare accelerator operated by BaselArea.swiss, has been instrumental as an early stage financial and operational supporter in the formation of the company. As a result of this tri-national collaboration, Alentis’ headquarters have been incorporated in Basel (Switzerland) with a subsidiary in Strasbourg (France) and a branch in Germany.

Together with potential US investor, Alentis Therapeutics’ CEO Markus Ewert, ex-Ablynx CBO, hopes to complete a follow-up expansion of the Series A financing of his new company.The goal with the current financing, however, is to develop an antibody lead against the target and push it through until clinical development stage.

Ewert suggests, the company has an opportunity to reverse fibrosis and eventually avoid its fatal progression to cirrhosis or HCC. So far, there are no approved drugs that could stop or revert fibrosis, a consequence of chronic liver inflammation.

However, recent research of German highly cited liver specialist Mathias Heikenwälder from German Cancer Research Centre (Heidelberg) suggest that antibodies targeting GPIbalpha in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) could prevent onset of liver inflammation and subsequent cirrhosis and HCC in animal models. According to Heikenwalder, who most recently entered a 3-year research collaboration with German liver specialist Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG to co-develop small molecule drugs preventing onset of fibrosis and cancer in NASH patients, GPIbalpha inhibition blocks accumulation of platelets in the liver, which attract and activate immune cells triggering the pro-inflammatory response Heikenwälder discovered to be a prerequisite for fibrotic tissue remodeling