Lyndra Therapeutics, a Watertown, MA-based developer of once-monthly oral contraceptive, received a $13m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The company will use the funds to design and build a new once-monthly oral combination therapy that delivers a continuous dose of estrogen and progestin, the same drugs used in daily combined oral contraceptives.
The development program is focused on demonstrating that once-monthly residence is achievable. This includes preclinical evaluation, which Lyndra will conduct in collaboration with Routes2Results, a non-profit social and public health research organization and collective with extensive regional expertise, through additional funding from the foundation.
The foundation also awarded Lyndra a grant for the development of a long-acting malaria drug and invested in Lyndra’s recent Series B financing round, funds the company will use for Phase II clinical trials, expansion of its Phase I pipeline and manufacturing scale-up.
Led by Amy Schulman, CEO and co-founder, Lyndra Therapeutics is advancing an orally administered dosage form designed to deliver sustained release of one or more drugs for up to a week or longer while temporarily residing in the stomach.
Inside a familiar capsule is a star-shaped formulation with active pharmaceutical ingredients that are released consistently over time. The formulation, which is designed to open once inside the stomach, eventually exits safely via the gastrointestinal tract, like undigested food.
The grant is part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Family Planning program, which is working to bring access to high-quality contraceptive information, services and supplies to women in low- and middle-income countries.
FinSMEs
30/07/2019