Lys Therapeutics announced that it has raised more than €25 million since its founding in 2021. The financing will support the advancement of the company’s lead candidate, LYS241, toward clinical development in neurology.
Lys Therapeutics is a French biotechnology company developing therapies that target the tPA-NMDAr axis in neurodegenerative and neurovascular diseases.
The financing includes a grant of more than $5 million from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
The company has also received support from Bpifrance, France 2030, and private investors.
Lys Therapeutics said it has achieved key preclinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and translational milestones over the past five years.
LYS241 is a fully humanized, Fc-silent IgG1 monoclonal antibody.
The candidate is designed to selectively block the pathological interaction between tissue plasminogen activator and NMDA receptors while preserving physiological receptor function.
By targeting this neurovascular pathway, Lys Therapeutics said LYS241 is intended to address mechanisms linked to blood-brain barrier dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and excitotoxicity.
The company is evaluating the therapeutic potential of LYS241 across Parkinson’s disease, synucleinopathies, including multiple system atrophy, and ischemic stroke.
The proceeds will support completion of regulatory studies, manufacturing readiness, and the clinical entry of LYS241 through a biomarker-rich Phase 1a/1b program.
The planned clinical program is expected to include healthy volunteer cohorts and indication-specific patient cohorts.
The program is designed to assess safety, pharmacokinetics, and early proof-of-biology signals across priority neurological indications.
Lys Therapeutics said recent preclinical data support the potential of LYS241 to address blood-brain barrier dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and neurodegenerative progression in Parkinson’s disease.
Additional preclinical data also support the relevance of the approach in synucleinopathies, including multiple system atrophy.
In ischemic stroke, LYS241 is being developed as a standalone or adjunctive therapy to standard reperfusion strategies.
The company said the goal in ischemic stroke is to improve reperfusion quality and reduce hemorrhagic and inflammatory complications.
KEY QUOTES:
“Raising more than €25 million in five years reflects strong confidence in our science, our execution and the broad therapeutic potential of LYS241. This support enables us to complete the work required for clinical entry and pursue our ambition of translating a differentiated understanding of neurovascular biology into a new class of disease-modifying therapies for severe neurological disorders with substantial unmet medical needs.”
Dr. Manuel Blanc, CEO and Co-Founder of Lys Therapeutics
