Vectalys & FlashCell Announce Merger to Create Flash Therapeutics, New Gene Therapy Company Based on Lentiviral Platforms & B...
May 16 2018 - 1:00PM
Business Wire
New Company developing proprietary RNA-based
therapeutics and providing broad lentiviral development and
manufacturing expertise and support
Vectalys, a leading biotech company specialized in manufacturing
high quality lentiviral solutions for gene delivery, and FlashCell,
a company developing non-integrating lentiviral delivered RNA
therapeutics, today announced that they have merged to create Flash
Therapeutics, a new privately held gene therapy company developing
gene and cell therapeutics. Financial terms of the merger were not
disclosed.
Flash Therapeutics will advance two complementary
businesses:
- Development of novel RNA therapeutics
based on LentiFlash®, a proprietary non-integrative lentiviral
delivery technology for incurable diseases;
- Worldwide contract development and
manufacturing expertise and support - from discovery through GMP
production - for clients developing lentivirally-delivered RNA and
DNA therapies.
In connection with the merger, Flash Therapeutics received a
€3.3 million investment from Auriga Partners, a leading private
equity investor, through its AURIGA IV Bioseed fund; Galia Gestion,
a private equity fund based in Bordeaux, France; and two angel
investors, Jean-Pierre Arnaud and Alain Sainsot. Auriga and
Vectalys were initial investors in FlashCell, which was established
in 2017.
LentiFlash technology was developed to deliver RNA into cells
with high efficiency for short-term expression without integrating
genetic material into the host cells’ genome. Conventional
lentiviral vectors deliver DNA that integrates into the target
cells’ genome and results in stable expression. LentiFlash has
demonstrated great potential to expand the use of lentiviral
delivery along with advanced technologies (e.g., gene editing, next
generation immunotherapy) that may not be compatible with
conventional lentiviral vectors used as therapeutics.
“Flash Therapeutics capitalizes on both the emergence of gene
and cell therapies as major new therapeutic modalities for the
treatment of genetic and other previously untreatable diseases, and
of lentiviral vectors as a commercially and medically validated
approach to gene delivery,” said Pascale Bouillé, PhD, CEO of Flash
Therapeutics. “Our new company is positioned to build on the
lentiviral development and production technologies Vectalys
developed and applied over the past 13 years, and to advance a new
class of RNA therapies based on its transient, non-integrating
lentiviral technology, LentiFlash.”
Dr. Bouillé added, “LentiFlash technology combines both delivery
efficiency without cell damage of viral vectors and safety of RNA
delivery.”
Dr. Bouillé noted that Flash Therapeutics is initially
developing RNA therapeutics based on LentiFlash in the areas of
blood and liver diseases. The Company plans to collaborate with
pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to develop RNA therapies
in other disease areas.
The Company’s lentiviral development and production business,
which will continue to operate under the Vectalys manufacturing
platform name, will expand as part of Flash Therapeutics to include
scalable GMP manufacturing capabilities. The GMP facility, which is
expected to become fully operational in 2019, is being established
through a recently signed, three-year partnership with Hospital
Saint-Louis, Lariboisière, Fernand-Widal (Assistance Public
Hospitals of Paris AP-HP) to develop and produce gene and cell
therapy drugs.
“Rapid growth in the development of gene and cell therapies,
along with an increasing number of products in clinical trials, are
driving the global need for lentiviral manufacturing technology and
expertise,” noted Dr. Bouillé. “With capabilities for development
and manufacturing that will span from discovery through GMP
production, Flash Therapeutics is poised to fill that need. Our
lentiviral development and production technologies, along with
LentiFlash, will allow us to participate broadly in the development
and commercialization of gene and cell therapy in a wide range of
difficult-to-treat diseases.”
Franck Lescure, partner in charge of AURIGA IV Bioseeds at
Auriga Partners, added that new investors, “Jean-Pierre Arnaud and
Alain Sainsot, will also bring their strong industrial experience
and know-how to Flash Therapeutics, which holds the key to
addressing existing technological barriers in gene therapies.”
Since its founding in 2005, Vectalys has provided lentiviral
tools and manufacturing support and expertise to leading companies
and academic institutions. Vectalys has existing distribution
relationships with Takara Bio worldwide for prefabricated
particles.
About LentiFlash®Thanks to 10 years of Vectalys’
research on lentiviral delivery systems, the LentiFlash, technology
is a game-changing class of RNA carriers based on a chimeric
lentiviral platform including the bacteriophage packaging system.
This innovative technology has been specifically designed to
package genetic materials for transient expression of genome
editing machineries, antigens or cell specific factors in cells and
tissues. The LentiFlash delivery system offers the advantage of a
lentiviral particle combined with an important safety consideration
for human use since RNAs are directly delivered and expressed into
the cytoplasm, which removes any risk of integration into the
genome. Details on LentiFlash technology were described in
Molecular Therapy: Methods and Clinical Development in 2015.
About Flash TherapeuticsFlash Therapeutics is a new gene
therapy company developing gene and cell-based therapies leveraging
its proprietary lentiviral platform and bioproduction technologies.
The Company is built around the Vectalys lentiviral platform, which
includes its patented non-integrative LentiFlash® technology, and
integrative lentiviral vectors. By providing efficient, transient
and short-term RNA delivery technology, LentiFlash is suitable for
gene editing and other advanced therapeutic approaches. When stable
DNA expression is needed (immunotherapies such as CAR T cells),
integrative lentiviral vectors will be the delivery method of
choice. Both technologies benefit from novel production and
purification processes developed and continually optimized since
2005. Flash Therapeutics is advancing two business lines:
therapeutic development based on LentiFlash, with internal programs
for blood and liver diseases; and development and manufacturing
support to companies worldwide pursuing lentiviral delivered
therapies. Flash Therapeutics was established in 2018 through the
merger of FlashCell, a privately held company developing
LentiFlash®, based RNA therapeutics; and Vectalys, a leading
privately held 13-year old lentiviral vector manufacturer. Learn
more at www.flashtherapeutics.com.
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