Thabor Therapeutics Secures €2 Million in Deep Tech Financing From Bpifrance

Thabor Therapeutics, a company developing an innovative treatment for patients living with chronic mucosal inflammatory diseases, today announces it has secured €2 million ($2.09M) in funding from the French public investment bank Bpifrance, as part of the Deeptech Plan.

This funding will enable Thabor to accelerate its R&D programs and to build upon the very encouraging results achieved since the company was founded in June 2021; for the industrial development of its monoclonal antibodies and an IND (Investigational New Drug) application.

The funding from Bpifrance is another step towards the series A round planned for Q4, 2022. Thabor also intends to use the money for further staff recruitment to strengthen its team.

“We are delighted to have secured this financing. It’s great news for our company, as it underlines the disruptive potential of our therapeutic approach,” said Jérémie Mariau, CEO of Thabor Therapeutics. “Our research aims to improve patients’ long-term remission while reducing the risk of adverse side effects. It represents a major innovation in the treatment of disabling chronic inflammatory diseases, which could provide patients with a long-term solution where current treatments, notably immunosuppressive biotherapies, are failing.”

The deep tech financing provided by Bpifrance is intended to fund the research and development phases of innovative, breakthrough projects prior to their industrial and commercial launch. Thabor Therapeutics’ program matches this goal. Established in 2019, the Deeptech plan deploys €2.5bn ($2.61bn) over five years, with the objective of financing the creation of 500 start-ups each year.

Factors that helped secure the funding for Thabor Therapeutics include its scientific excellence and the therapeutic potential of its project. The decision was also strongly influenced by its intellectual property strategy and the experience of its management team, along with the positive impact that a treatment for such widespread diseases could have on public health.

A new target to guarantee epithelial protection in chronic mucosal inflammatory diseases

The approach pursued by Thabor Therapeutics is based on more than ten years of research conducted by Eric Chevet, PhD, director of research at the Inserm 1242 unit in Rennes, and Eric Ogier-Denis, PhD, director of research into `Cellular Stress and Inflammatory Bowel Disease’ at Inserm, in close collaboration with Professor Xavier Treton, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist at AP-HP (Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris university hospital center). Their work helped identify a new target, AGR2, involved in the maintenance of endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis in healthy individuals; said target becoming secreted and deleterious in pathological conditions exerting pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic effects as well as disruption of the epithelium. Inhibiting this target, when secreted, may constitute a highly transformative approach for treating inflammatory bowel diseases and other mucosal inflammatory conditions.

Inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis affect more than seven million people globally, with most of the cases reported in Europe and in the US.