Vectalys, a biotech company specialized in manufacturing high quality lentiviral solutions for gene delivery, and FlashCell, a company developing non-integrating lentiviral delivered RNA therapeutics, have merged to create Flash Therapeutics, a new privately held gene therapy company developing gene and cell therapeutics. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.
Flash Therapeutics will advance two complementary businesses:
- Development of novel RNA therapeutics based on LentiFlash, a proprietary non-integrative lentiviral delivery technology for incurable diseases;
- Worldwide contract development and manufacturing expertise and support - from discovery through GMP production - for clients developing lentivirally-delivered RNA and DNA therapies.
In connection with the merger, Flash Therapeutics received a €3.3 million investment from Auriga Partners, a leading private equity investor, through its AURIGA IV Bioseed fund; Galia Gestion, a private equity fund based in Bordeaux, France; and two angel investors, Jean-Pierre Arnaud and Alain Sainsot. Auriga and Vectalys were initial investors in FlashCell, which was established in 2017.
LentiFlash technology was developed to deliver RNA into cells with high efficiency for short-term expression without integrating genetic material into the host cells’ genome. Conventional lentiviral vectors deliver DNA that integrates into the target cells’ genome and results in stable expression. LentiFlash has demonstrated great potential to expand the use of lentiviral delivery along with advanced technologies (e.g., gene editing, next generation immunotherapy) that may not be compatible with conventional lentiviral vectors used as therapeutics.
“Flash Therapeutics capitalizes on both the emergence of gene and cell therapies as major new therapeutic modalities for the treatment of genetic and other previously untreatable diseases, and of lentiviral vectors as a commercially and medically validated approach to gene delivery,” said Pascale Bouillé, PhD, CEO of Flash Therapeutics. “Our new company is positioned to build on the lentiviral development and production technologies Vectalys developed and applied over the past 13 years, and to advance a new class of RNA therapies based on its transient, non-integrating lentiviral technology, LentiFlash.”