Biotech consolidation continues as Nasdaq-listed Erytech merges with phage therapy developer

Just shy of two decades, the name of Erytech Pharma — and its mission of using red blood cells to deliver drugs for rare cancers and orphan diseases — will soon become biotech history.

The company has been searching for strategic alternatives since its lead drug flunked a Phase III pancreatic cancer trial in 2021. And it finally found the perfect match in fellow French drugmaker Pherecydes, which is focused on developing treatments against resistant bacterial infections.

Erytech and Pherecydes will merge to form a new company, whose name is yet to be disclosed, and redirect Erytech’s financial resources, people and network toward Pherecydes’ phage therapy programs.

Pherecydes has already started a Phase II trial in patients with knee or hip prosthetic joint infections (PJI) due to Staphylococcus aureus, which they now plan to expand by adding trial sites. The combined crew will also look into drug delivery and formulation using red blood cells or red blood cell-derived vesicles — a specialty of Erytech’s — as applied to the development of phage and endolysins as anti-infectives.

It also expects to expand the research portfolio to include two more target pathogens in addition to the existing three.

Erytech’s presence in the US, from its Cambridge, MA, headquarters to its Nasdaq listing as well as clinical and regulatory stakeholders, will also open the door to future clinical development stateside, it added.

Its former lead candidate, eryaspase, encapsulates an enzyme and chemotherapy agent known as L-asparaginase inside donor-derived red blood cells in hopes of hitting cancer cells’ metabolism. Despite encouraging Phase IIb data, it failed to extend overall survival for patients with second-line pancreatic cancer. It pivoted to hypersensitive acute lymphoblastic leukemia for a while, only to scrap those plans after the FDA asked for more than Phase II data.

Gil Beyen

That decision, announced in August, left Erytech a preclinical player in dire need of a new direction.

Its remaining cash will help pave a cash runway into Q3 2024, according to a press release, and the consolidated cash position was around €41 million as of the end of 2022.

Thibaut du Fayet, Pherecydes CEO, will take charge following the deal, but his team will relocate from Nantes to Lyon, France, which the companies note is a “major European hub for infectious diseases.”

Erytech CEO Gil Beyen, meanwhile, will take on the vice chairman role; Jean-Paul Kress will step down as Erytech chairman. That said, the new board will comprise an equal number of directors from Erytech and Pherecydes, reflecting the 49% stake that Pherecydes shareholders will claim in the new company.

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