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Nantes biotech plans more than ever to start a clinical trial at the end of June
She has been working for several months on the development of a drug against Covid-19. And it’s off to a pretty good start. The Nantes start-up Xenothera indeed announces that it has completed the financing of the project, enough to seriously consider starting a clinical trial at the end of June. Twenty volunteer patients could receive this anti-body treatment, administered intravenously.
After having already benefited from 500,000 euros in various subsidies, Xenothera, biotech created in 2014, explains that it received State aid amounting to 2.3 million euros via the French Tech Bridge device. At the same time, it received a European grant of 2.1 million euros through the Horizon 2000 research and innovation program.
“Ambitions on the rise”
“The total amount thus collected, significantly higher than the initial estimate of 3 million euros, will, therefore, allow Xenothera to revise its ambitions upwards and optimize the implementation of its treatment, by preparing clinical trials and the large-scale production of its drug, with the aim of establishing a rapid reaction system in the event of a new serious viral epidemic, ”welcomes the start-up.
Called XAV-19, Xenothera’s “drug candidate” is intended for patients affected by Covid-19 and already hospitalized. It allows, by injecting so-called “glyco-humanized” antibodies, to boost the patient’s immune defences and prevent the virus from entering the cells (and therefore multiply).
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