Company overview: ReACT Therapeutics is a new biotech company, founded in 2023, brings important novel discoveries in multidrug resistance (MDR) leveraging 20 years of pioneering MDR research at Grenoble and Lyon universities, France. ReACT was a top 100 French startups from academic research for Deeptech Connect's 100% business day.
Mission: Rapidly impact cancer treatment-resistance with novel, potent, selective, safe, first-in-class inhibitors targeting Breast Cancer Resistance Protein (BCRP) inhibition. A wide array of anticancer drugs can be re-activated for efficacy by targeting the change in BCRP status.
Unmet Medical Need: 90% of cancer treatment deaths result from MDR, with BCRP-mediated drug efflux a key factor. BCRP occurs in 14 indications, including the top 9 global cancers, impacting 40 anticancer drugs. A clinically effective BCRP-targeting medicine is currently absent.
Our Solution: Develop 5th-generation BCRP inhibitors for effective cancer drug efflux blockade. Our lead clinical candidate, ValOMé, excels in efficacy, selectivity, safety, and synthesis ease. Plan a BCRP assay to create personalized medicine for drug efflux detection and treatment.
Market Opportunity: Our molecules target BCRP resistance for 40 approved anticancer drugs, representing a $70 billion market across cancer treatment segments (chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, Antibody-drug conjugate). Immediate focus is on re-enabling irinotecan efficacy in high-incidence, urgent-need colon & pancreatic cancer, easily representing blockbuster market potential. Longer-term focus is drug target expansion and impacting antibody drug conjugate (ADC) treatments used in breast cancer.
Competitive Advantages: Our BCRP inhibitors are available from an exclusive global license. They meet key development criteria - potent inhibition, high selectivity, no toxicity at tested doses, rapid and low-cost synthesis, and a deep understanding of the structure activity relationship.
Executive team: CEO- Emile Roussel, PhD in medicinal chemistry and inventor.
CSO- Lise Clément-Demange, PhD in cancer biology.
Management & Advisors: Our strategic committee brings expertise in BCRP domain science, preclinical & clinical/regulatory development, and fund-raising. Our scientific committee includes pioneering co-inventors, a drug discovery consultant with 20+ years of industrial experience, and a patient partner. We are developing multi-national academic and industry collaborations.
- Strategic committee: Gary LWG Robinson, PhD & Renaud Vaillant
- Scientific committee: Ahcène Boumendjel, PhD; Didier Cussac, PhD; Pierre Falson, PhD; Cyril Sarrauste de menthière, PhD.
Business Model: We sell domain-specific second-tier licenses, allowing customized partnerships for each anticancer drug and target indication. We will define a drug target-dependent clinical strategy through basket trials, enabling early sub-licensing opportunities based on safety and efficacy assessments as early as Phase I.
Intellectual property: We have global patent sub-licensable rights: Patent FR1908485 (Issued: 01/22) is being extended worldwide (Canada, USA, Europe, China & Japan). We have a clear Freedom To Operate and ongoing patent development.
Key Achieved Milestones:
- Efficacy: Doubling of irinotecan's effectiveness and mouse survival fivefold improvement. Tumor cell line studies confirm enhancement of irinotecan efficacy.
- Toxicity: Safety at single and repeated (5d) doses in small animals. No off-target effects.
- CMC: Our preclinical lead compound is rapidly, easily synthesized at scale, stable, and suitable for both oral and intravenous administration.
- Fundraising: Bank loans (BNP Paribas, BPI France, GAIA, 150 k€) and a BPI France grant (90 k€). Initiated (Sept 2023) funding round, 500,000€ target to principally support R&D and IP.
- 2024-25 objectives:
- IV Formulation: We're focused on creating a safe, stable intravenous formulation for human use.
- PK Data: Complete essential PK studies to inform on precise dosing regimens for preclinical and clinical studies.
- MoA: Confirm MOA across multiple drugs to identify therapeutic potential.
- Biomarker: Identify optimal BCRP status patient stratification.
- Efficacy: Confirm in vitro and in vivo potentiation for BCRP-substrate chemotherapies to enhance development, collaborations, and commercial viability.
