WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following their recent closing of a $23 Million Series A financing round, Lyndra, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a 5-year grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund the formulation and pre-clinical development of a once weekly oral HIV therapy.
The Lyndra platform, an orally administered dosage form, is designed to deliver sustained, steady-state drug release for up to a week or longer by temporarily residing in the gastric cavity. Lyndra’s dosage form can deliver a wide range of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Less frequent dosing could reduce patient and caregiver burden, and improve patient compliance and health outcomes. The ultra long-acting HIV therapy being developed with NIAID’s support will help to increase patient adherence to antiretroviral treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis.
“Given the need for life-long antiretroviral therapy, there is great interest in long-acting oral option to make it easier for patients to adhere to their treatment regimens,” remarked HIV specialist Dr. Paul Edward Sax, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“Inconsistent adherence to HIV therapies is particularly impactful due to the potential for therapeutic failure and the development of resistance. A patient forgetting to take his or her medication, even for a few days, has significant implications for long-term health. By creating a weekly oral formulation with an optimized pharmacokinetic profile, we believe we will enable improved therapeutic success. Oral long-acting therapies complement injectable therapies in development and potentially expand access,” said Andrew Bellinger, Chief Scientific Officer of Lyndra. “Support from NIAID will enable us to begin development of this important and timely therapeutic.”
In addition to the work Lyndra is conducting with NIAID, the company is also developing a pipeline of ultra long-acting therapies internally and with partners.
About Lyndra
Lyndra aims to fundamentally change the way patients take medicines through the development of oral, ultra-long-acting, sustained release oral therapies that drastically improve healthcare outcomes. The Lyndra platform was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Langer in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Lyndra formulations transform medications taken daily or more frequently into a weekly or monthly dose, promising to improve patient adherence as well as to optimize the pharmacokinetic profile of the dosage form. For more information visit https://www.lyndra.com/.
Lyndra, Inc.
Ellie McGuire, 339-222-6519
Head of Business Development for Lyndra, Inc.
emcguire@lyndra.com
