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Advanced BioDesign, Winner of the I-NOV innovation Competition (Wave 7) run by the BPI with its ALDESCREEN Project
Advanced BioDesign will receive a total of €425,604 in funding to support the development of its ALDESCREEN project over the next three years. The ALDESCREEN project aims to develop an early diagnostic test for lung cancer that will allow a more accurate targeting of patients and cancer therapies.
Lyon, 15 th November 2021 – Advanced BioDesign, a French biotechnology company specialising in the development of a new therapy for cancers resistant to standard treatments, has won a call for projects supported by the Investments for the Future Program (PIA) run by the BPI (French public investment bank). As such, the biotech company will benefit from financial aid totalling €425,604 (45% of the total amount) to pursue its project until January 2025.
Advanced BioDesign presented the ALDESCREEN project at the i-Nov Innovation Competition, a support scheme funded by the Investments for the Future Program (PIA), which aims to select innovative projects from companies with the potential to become world leaders in their field. The ALDESCREEN project is a non-invasive diagnostic tool that will considerably improve patient care. It addresses an urgent need for early diagnostic biomarkers in lung cancer and paves the way for an innovative screening method and targeted therapeutic strategies to optimise side effects and treatment duration, and therefore the cost per patient.
As Professor Laurent Greillier, lung specialist and oncologist at the Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille* points out, “The vast majority of lung cancers are diagnosed too late. The identification of blood biomarkers, enabling lung cancer screening in subjects at risk, meets an urgent clinical need and would significantly improve patient care. In addition, despite the progress made in the development of anti-cancer treatments in recent years, we still lack tools capable of predicting their efficacy on an individual level. We therefore need new biomarkers to fully enter the era of precision oncology.”
Dr. Mileidys Perez, Scientific Director of Advanced BioDesign, added: “The recognition of the innovative character and added value of our project by the BPI in a competition where only 10 to 15% of the projects received funding gives the teams full confidence in the pursuit of our research and strengthens our desire to develop more effective and personalised anti-cancer therapies.” While the ALDESCREEN test may initially be used in the field of R&D, its clinical use for prognostic, diagnostic and stratification purposes to treat NSCLC1 patients is forecasted in the medium term. Ultimately, this test could be validated as a “companion test” to consolidate the ALDH 1 inhibitor-based therapeutic approach currently being developed by Advanced BioDesign. This innovative approach will be evaluated in the coming months in its first clinical phase.
“This funding is an additional support and a valuable acceleration of our ALDESCREEN project. I am very proud and pleased that we have been successful. With this grant and the continued support of our long-time investor Xerys Invest, our teams will be able to provide clinicians with an additional decision support tool while consolidating Advanced BioDesign's therapeutic approach to treat resistant cancers.” concludes Ismail Ceylan, founder and CEO of Advanced BioDesign.
About the "i-Nov Innovation Contest" call for projects
The i-Nov innovation competition is financed by the French government through the Investments for the Future Program (PIA) and is operated by BPI France. This highly esteemed competition is dedicated to singlepartner innovative projects led by start-ups and SMEs and leads to the accelerated emergence of top companies in their field on a global scale. The call for projects allows for the co-financing of research, development and innovation projects with a total cost of between €600,000 and €5 million for a duration of between 12 and 36 months. Wave 7 of the competition aims to support innovative projects led by start-ups and SMEs in 8 themes. For more information, please visit : https://www.bpifrance.fr/nos-appels-a-projetsconcours/appel-a-projets-concours-dinnovation-i-nov
About Advanced BioDesign
Advanced BioDesign is a French biotechnology company developing a novel therapeutic approach against resistant cancers, with a first indication in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Its lead anti-cancer compound, DIMATE, is a first-in-class suicide inhibitor of aldehyde dehydrogenases 1 (ALDH1). The ALDH enzyme allows cancer cells to detoxify themselves by recycling potentially damaging molecules. By inhibiting this enzyme, DIMATE induces apoptosis of the cancer cell without damaging healthy cells at therapeutic doses. Its clinical formulation ABD-3001 will be evaluated in Phase 1 in AML from 2022. Founded in 2010 and based in SaintPriest near Lyon (France), Advanced BioDesign is collaborating with Prof. Régis Costello at the AP-HM (Marseille) who will be the principal researcher in the human study. For more information: www.a-biodesign.com; LinkedIn
About Xerys Invest
Xerys Invest is a French private equity firm that invests mainly in today's leading sectors such as Health & Life Sciences, renewable energies/GreenTech and new digital technologies. Xerys Invest supports companies in industrial sectors that are undergoing major transformations in response to economic, environmental, and societal challenges and that have strong ambitions in terms of development and international expansion. Xerys Invest stands out in the market both through its modus operandi and its long-term strategic and operational support for portfolio companies, and through its offer of traced or mutualised investment opportunities to investors and its relationship with them. Lastly, Xerys Invest has genuine sectoral expertise, supported by a strategic committee made up of specialists and recognised experts in key sectors. For more information, please visit: www.xerys.com; LinkedIn
