Lyndra, Inc. announced the closing of a $23 Million Series A financing, led by Polaris Partners, with participation from Quark Venture and GF Securities, Yonghua Capital, Healthlink Capital, Partners Healthcare, Suffolk Equity and others. The company’s novel therapeutic oral delivery platform has the potential to transform patient care by improving therapeutic efficacy, reducing side effects, and generating cost-savings to patients and healthcare systems.
Lyndra’s technology is the first ultra-long acting, sustained release oral dosage form. Lyndra’s system enables linear drug release of small molecules and peptides for 7 days or more from each orally administered capsule. In addition to improving patient health outcomes via improved adherence, the Lyndra dosage form offers a unique method of local gastrointestinal delivery. Sustained, steady state pharmacokinetic profiles potentially reduce side effects. The technology was conceived in the lab of Prof. Robert Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Drs. Langer, Giovanni Traverso and Andrew Bellinger. Articles on the platform development conducted at MIT have been published in journals such as Nature and Science and Translational Medicine.
Lyndra will utilize the capital raised to further the development of its lead candidate program and increase manufacturing capabilities. The company will commence first in human trials this year. Additional Lyndra dosage forms are being developed for pharmaceutical and biotech partners.
“Lyndra’s ultra-long acting platform, originally developed for mass drug administration campaigns in the developing world, is particularly powerful because of the breadth of indications and compounds that the company can target and bring to patients. The number of lives we could touch with this technology is nearly limitless. Since the companies founding, 5 members of the [Langer] Lab have joined Lyndra due to their commitment to bring this technology to patients. This mix of passion and potential patient impact is truly something special“ said co-founder Robert Langer.
Lyndra CEO and co-founder Amy Schulman also noted Lyndra’s potential impact. “That approximately 50% of people do not adhere to their prescribed medications in the developed world leading to $100 billion dollars spent on avoidable hospitalizations in the US alone, which is both unfortunate and to date largely resistant to quick-fix efforts. The detrimental impact on patient health outcomes is something we can help. We hope the Lyndra platform will improve how patients feel about taking their medication, and how caregivers administer pills. Making it easier for patients and caregivers, while improving efficacy, shifts the current paradigm of oral delivery and adherence. This financing, and the incredible team we have assembled, will enable us to enter into clinical trials in the near term and start making that aspiration a reality.”