Alsatian biotech AdipoPharma has just achieved a great feat. This start-up founded by Vincent Marion, deputy director of the medical genetics laboratory of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) at the University of Strasbourg, announced on Monday January 23 that it had completed a fundraising so-called “series A” funds (i.e. to finance its development) with Belgian-Japanese and American financiers.
This should allow him to begin clinical trials of a new drug against type 2 diabetes, attacking the root of the problem: insulin resistance. The amount of the funding round has not been disclosed, but we know that AdipoPharma is aiming for a total fundraising of 26 million euros.
The discovery of the PATAS molecule, on which the new drug is based, however took place by chance. It was by conducting research on Alström syndrome, a rare disease leading to early diabetes, that Vincent Marion understood the role of adipose tissue in the absorption of glucose. The biochemist manages to isolate the protein controlling this absorption: PATAS.
The molecule has no effect on individuals with Alström syndrome, but it can treat people who are not carriers of this genetic disease. And unlike drugs on the market today, the new therapy does not act on the symptoms of type 2 diabetes, but on the metabolic process itself, making it possible to treat the entire human body. A revolution.
“Purely French tech discovery”
However, the first results of his research were not recognized by the international scientific community. The Inserm researcher then surrounded himself, from 2019, with the best specialists in the discipline to develop and test the molecule. The publication of the results of these studies in the American scientific journal Diabetes, in August 2022, finally convinced the first investors: the venture capital company Newton Biocapital, led by a former Pfizer executive, and the American fund Good Growth Capital.
Their commitment will enable the start of the first clinical trials in 2023. These will initially take place in the United States, the world’s largest market for antidiabetic treatments. For this, AdipoPharma has already submitted a request to the American authorities (Food and drug administration) and opened a subsidiary in Pittsburgh.
You have 26.6% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.