EverImmune, a Villejuif, near Paris, France-based biotechnology company specialized in the development of live biotherapeutic products in the field of microbiota oncology, secured €3.46m ($3.41M) in funding.
Bpifrance provided the funding, which is a mix of subsidies and repayable loans, under the ‘Innovation in biotherapeutics’ scheme.
The company will be able to conduct a phase I/II clinical trial for its drug candidate Oncobax® AK in patients undergoing immunotherapy. The funding will be used to recruit 71 trial patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) or Renal Cell Cancer (RCC). EverImmune will investigate whether Oncobax AK improves the effectiveness of the patients’ immunotherapy treatment. The clinical trial will be conducted in 15 hospitals throughout France and Belgium, including Gustave Roussy, the leading cancer center that spun-off everImmune.
The clinical trial uses a companion test to select the patients deficient in AK and resistant to immunotherapy treatment. These patients will be given a daily dose (one pill) of Oncobax AK (a Live Biotherapeutic Product [LPB]) to see if the drug can reverse this deficiency and in doing so boost the immune system and restore patients’ responsiveness to immunotherapies in primary resistance settings. Currently, only 30% of NSCLC patients and 40% of RCC patients respond to immunotherapy.
EverImmune also continues to develop a broader pipeline of products, including other bacteria with strong adjuvant potential for the treatment of different types of cancer, such as breast and colon cancers.
Created in 2016 by co-founders Pr. Laurence Zitvogel and Dr. Romain Daillere, everImmune is a spinoff from Gustave Roussy; Europe’s first cancer institute, based near Paris, France. The company is part of ONCOBIOME, the first European program dedicated to microbiome and cancer, funded by the European Union. everImmune has seven staff.
FinSMEs
19/09/2023