SNAPSHOT

Altesa raised $75M to fight against COPD’s overlooked viral trigger

Altesa BioSciences raised a $75M Series B to fund a 900-patient Phase IIb trial of vapendavir, an oral antiviral targeting rhinovirus infections in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients. The round saw participation from investors including Forbion, Sanofi, Medicxi and Pitango.

Why it matters: Rhinoviruses cause about 45% of acute COPD exacerbations, yet no approved therapies directly target the virus, leaving patients vulnerable to hospitalizations, lung function decline and reduced quality of life.

Backstory: Altesa raised $4M in seed funding in 2022 to develop antivirals for common respiratory viruses. The company licensed vapendavir from Vaxart in 2021 in a deal worth up to $130M in milestones. Vapendavir previously failed in moderate-to-severe asthma patients under a prior developer in 2017.

Big picture: The COPD market is increasingly competitive, with new biologics like Sanofi’s Dupixent and GSK’s Nucala approved in the EU. But these therapies focus on inflammation, not viral triggers. Altesa is targeting a largely unaddressed disease driver.

Zoom in: The Phase IIb study will enroll 900 COPD patients in the U.S. and U.K who will be monitored until naturally infected with rhinovirus, then randomized to vapendavir or placebo. In a 40-patient Phase IIa challenge study, the drug showed statistically significant improvements in COPD exacerbations, upper respiratory symptoms and faster infection resolution. Vapendavir, a capsid inhibitor, is active against more than 97% of rhinovirus strains.

What’s next: The Phase IIb trial is expected to begin in Q2. Success could validate vapendavir in COPD and expand its potential use to other high-risk groups, including asthma patients.

SNIPPETS

What’s happening in biotech today?

 🚧 Recruitment hurdle: Johnson & Johnson has temporarily paused enrollment in the phase 2b Retain trial of its AC Immune-partnered anti-tau Alzheimer’s vaccine, ACI-35.030 (JNJ-2056), while evaluating aspects of the study, including recruitment. The four-year trial, launched in 2024, aims to enroll 500 presymptomatic patients. AC Immune emphasized the pause is voluntary, not related to safety concerns, and that a prespecified interim immunogenicity threshold has been met. Analysts suggested recruitment challenges are the likely cause, noting progression to phase 3 will depend on cognitive and Tau PET outcomes.

💰 Grant boost: Lario Therapeutics has secured $2.4 million in grant funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) and Wellcome to advance its neuronal calcium channel drug discovery platform and expand into Parkinson’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The funding includes $1.5 million from MJFF to support research on the CaV1.3 target in Parkinson’s and $900,000 from Wellcome to validate CaV2.3 as a PTSD target, building on genetic links to the CACNA1E gene. The grants complement a prior $6 million MJFF award for CaV2.3 research. Lario also continues developing its lead CaV2.3 program for severe epileptic encephalopathies, with phase-enabling studies planned for 2026.

🧬 Data-driven discovery: Merck & Co. (MSD) and Mayo Clinic have formed a research collaboration to apply AI, advanced analytics, and multimodal clinical data to drug discovery and precision medicine. MSD will integrate Mayo Clinic Platform’s de-identified clinical, genomic, imaging, and molecular datasets with its virtual cell technologies to improve target identification, early development decisions, and disease understanding. Initial efforts will focus on atopic dermatitis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease, with the goal of increasing development success and accelerating innovative therapies to patients.

💊 Microbiome med: Mikrobiomik has received authorization in Spain to prepare and process faecal microbiota for treating Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), following approval of its oral therapy EUTEGRA (MBK-01). The Basque biotech, founded in 2018, is the first company authorised under the European Union’s strengthened Substances of Human Origin (SoHO) regulation introduced in 2024, which imposes enhanced standards for quality, safety, traceability, and clinical efficacy. EUTEGRA uses the company’s full spectrum purified intestinal microbiota (FSPIM) capsule technology as an alternative to аntibiоtics, the current standard of care. Mikrobiomik is now working to expand hospital access across Spain.

 🦠 Microbiome again: Theriva Biologics has licensed its oral therapy SYN-020 to privately held Rasayana Therapeutics, triggering a 48.6% surge in Theriva’s share price. SYN-020 is a recombinant bovine intestinal alkaline phosphatase produced under cGMP conditions and designed for delivery to the small intestine, where it aims to reduce fat absorption and inflammation, strengthen the gut barrier, and support a healthy microbiome. Previously shown to be well tolerated in Phase 1 studies, the candidate is set to enter Phase 2 trials under Rasayana’s development for multiple metabolic, inflammatory, and age-associated diseases targeting the gut-organ axis.

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