LMN-201

Plus, Tessellate BIO, led by former Big Pharma execs, comes out of stealth. Lumen Bioscience gets $16M to advance C. diff therapy: The Department of Defense awarded $16.2 million to the Seattle-based company, which is developing an oral drug to treat and prevent infections with C. difficile . It plans to start enrolling 375 patients in a late-stage trial for LMN-201 by the end of the year. Flashpoint’s $10M: Flashpoint Therapeutics on Tuesday announced a $10 million seed round, led by Riyadh-based Beta Lab. The funds are expected to help advance the company’s first cancer therapy and select a second candidate. Flashpoint’s platform is based on work out of Chad Mirkin’s lab at Northwestern University’s International Institute for Nanotechnology.

— Orally delivered biologic drug for treatment and prevention of C. difficile infection — LMN-201 to start pivotal trials in 2023 SEATTLE, May 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumen Bioscience—a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing biologic drugs for highly prevalent diseases—today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation for LMN-201, an investigational, orally delivered biologic drug to treat and prevent C. difficile infection (CDI). LMN-201 combines four therapeutic proteins that act synergistically to neutralize both the C. difficile bacterium and the toxin that causes its virulence directly in the patient's gastrointestinal tract. LMN-201 is taken orally (capsules), is compatible with standard-of-care antibiotics, and is GMP-manufactured by Lumen in Seattle. LMN-201 is intended to be administered concomitantly with normal antibiotics and for eight weeks thereafter to provide protection from reinfection while commensal bacteria recolonize the GI tract. "Fast Track Designation underscores the significant unmet need for treating and preventing C. difficile infection and the potential of LMN-201 to address this persistent gap in patient care," said Brian Finrow, co-founder and CEO of Lumen Bioscience. "Recent advances in CDI recurrence prevention are inspiring but have yet to make a perceivable impact on the epidemic, due in significant part to inconvenient administration requirements. We are committed to advancing our clinical program and bringing this innovative therapy to patients as quickly as possible, to provide relief to those suffering from this life-threatening disease." The FDA previously cleared a planned Phase 2/3 study of LMN-201, which will begin enrolling approximately 375 patients at sites across the United States later this year. The study's primary goal is recurrence prevention, although a secondary endpoint will also assess LMN-201's ability to enhance primary treatment outcomes. Physicians interested in participating are encouraged to contact Lumen's clinical operations team at [email protected]. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study will assess LMN-201's ability to both improve treatment outcomes and prevent recurrence in recently diagnosed CDI patients. Prior CDI recurrence is not required for enrollment. About Fast Track Designation The FDA's Fast Track process is designed to facilitate the development and expedite the review of drugs intended to treat serious conditions and to fill unmet medical needs. The purpose is to get important new drugs to the patient earlier. Companies that receive Fast Track Designation are eligible for several potential benefits, including more frequent meetings and interactions with the FDA during clinical development; eligibility for accelerated approval and priority review, if relevant criteria are met; and rolling review of completed sections of a biologics license application. About C. difficile infection (CDI) CDI is the most common health care-associated infection in U.S hospitals, causing nearly half a million cases and more than $5 billion in healthcare costs annually. Antibiotic therapy is typically successful for initial cases of CDI. However, 20%-40% of patients will suffer a recurrence, and the chance of additional episodes for these patients can exceed 40%. Currently available approaches for preventing CDI are hampered by high costs and inconvenient delivery (in most cases requiring either I.V. administration for traditional antibodies or bowel prep or enema for fecal microbiota transplant). About LMN-201 LMN-201 is a cocktail of two classes of therapeutic proteins: the world's first complex biologic cocktail drug. The first class is comprised of three antibody-like proteins that bind and neutralize the bacterial toxin that is the main cause of diarrhea and other severe symptoms of CDI. The second is an enzyme protein that destroys the cell wall of the C. difficile bacterium itself. The product is orally delivered in capsules and shelf stable, facilitating ready distribution to broader patient populations than is feasible with most other interventions available or in development for CDI. Lumen has published its pre-clinical data on LMN-201 on bioRxiv (pending peer review). About Lumen Lumen Bioscience discovers, develops, and manufactures biologic drug candidates for highly prevalent diseases—many of which currently lack effective treatments. The company's unique drug development and manufacturing platform offers the potential to transform the biologics industry through increased speed, mass-market scale, and exponentially lower costs than current approaches. Lumen's clinical pipeline includes investigational biologic drugs for C. difficile infection, Covid-19, cardiometabolic disease, inflammatory bowel disease, norovirus, and traveler's diarrhea. For more information, visit: . SOURCE Lumen Bioscience