TheraPPI

TheraPPI Bioscience is a preclinical-stage biotechnology firm founded in January 2023, with dual headquarters in Lyon, France, and Geneva, Switzerland. The company's scientific origins are rooted in research from the Lyon Cancer Research Center (CRCL), where the founding team discovered a novel therapeutic target. In November 2023, TheraPPI secured an exclusive global license agreement with the deep-tech incubator PULSALYS to develop drugs based on these discoveries. The company is the creation of a team with extensive experience in both academic research and the pharmaceutical industry: Luc Otten (CEO), Toufic Renno (CSO), Isabelle Coste (SVP Biology), and Stéphane Giraud (SVP Drug Development). This group combines expertise in immunogenetics, drug discovery, and corporate finance.

TheraPPI's core business is the development of small molecule drugs that modify protein-protein interactions (PPIs) to address significant unmet needs in oncology, rare diseases, and inflammatory conditions. The company's business model is centered on advancing its proprietary drug candidates through preclinical and clinical development, with the ultimate goal of partnering or licensing these assets to larger pharmaceutical companies. Funding has been secured through a combination of non-dilutive financing from BPI France and a seed loan from the Fondation Genevoise pour l'Innovation Technologique (FONGIT), alongside a pre-seed equity financing round from investors with a background in the biotech sector.

The company's lead programs target a newly identified protein interaction, ERK/MyD88, within the Ras-MAPK signaling pathway, which is hyperactivated in over 40% of human cancers and is implicated in certain rare diseases. This pathway's role in cancer drug resistance is a major cause of mortality, a problem TheraPPI aims to solve. The lead oncology program introduces a therapeutic approach with a tripartite mechanism: direct cancer cell killing, prevention of resistance induction, and activation of an anti-tumoral immune response. This strategy is designed to circumvent the limitations of current MAPK inhibitors and improve response rates for immunotherapies, thereby offering a more effective and safer treatment for patients with advanced cancers.

Keywords: preclinical biotechnology, protein-protein interactions, small molecule drugs, oncology, rare diseases, cancer drug resistance, Ras-MAPK pathway, ERK/MyD88 interaction, immunotherapy, CRCL, Lyon, Geneva, biopharmaceutical, therapeutics, drug discovery, signal dysregulation, preclinical data