Ear, nose and throat (ENT) diseases biotech Lyra Therapeutics aims to drive through the coronavirus market volatility and gun for a $58 million IPO.
This comes just over a month after the Watertown, Massachusetts-based company got off a $30 million series C, which it will now hope to add that IPO cash haul to, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This money will all go toward its ENT meds, which include LYR-210, a miniaturized, bioresorbable device that is implanted deep in the nasal passages where it delivers an anti-inflammatory steroid for up to six months.
It can be inserted at a routine visit, during which the doctor will numb the area and deliver the drug depot using a syringe-like instrument. While the depot is made of bioresorbable polymers, it would remain in the patient’s body longer than the six-month medication period. So, once the depot is empty, a doctor would remove it before inserting a new one.
The biotech, which aims to list on the Nasdaq as "LYRA," is also working on LYR-210 as an alternative to surgery in an ongoing phase 2 clinical trial for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients who have failed medical management.
Lyra's second treatment, LYR-220, is also being tested in CRS patients who have an enlarged nasal cavity due to sinus surgery but continue to require treatment to manage CRS symptoms. A trial here should be kick-started by end of next year.
Beyond CRS, the biotech says its so-called XTreo platform has “potential applications in other disease areas, which it is actively exploring to further broaden the platform’s therapeutic potential,” according to its SEC-1.
The drug within LYR-210 and LYR-220 is mometasone furoate, a steroid used in various FDA-approved drugs including for hay fever, asthma and skin conditions.