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Portugal has a rich biotech ecosystem that is rapidly growing, despite sometimes being overlooked compared with other countries in Europe. The biotech industry in the country is particularly strong in the area of medical biotech and is supported by the presence of Bial, the largest pharmaceutical company in the country, with headquarters in the Porto area. In this article, we take a look at seven of the biotech companies driving innovation in Portugal.
Table of contents
BSIM Therapeutics
Founded as an academic spinoff based on research from the University of Coimbra conducted in collaboration with the University of Leeds, BSIM Therapeutics uses molecular modeling, cheminformatics, data mining, and machine learning to develop new drugs for a rare disease called transthyretin amyloidosis. This disease is caused by a mutation that leads the protein transthyretin to build up, causing progressive degeneration of multiple organs and tissues.
BSIM’s most advanced drug candidate, currently undergoing preclinical testing, is a potent stabilizer of the transthyretin protein that aims to slow down the progression of symptoms affecting the heart. The company also has two other stabilizer candidates in the optimization phase targeting symptoms affecting the brain and the eye.
Exogenus Therapeutics
Exogenus Therapeutics was founded to develop therapies based on a technology conceived at the University of Coimbra that relies on extracellular vesicles and exosomes – molecular vehicles that cells use to transport molecules across the body.
According to the company’s website, its lead candidate, Exo-101, which is derived from umbilical cord blood cells, has shown regenerative and anti-inflammatory properties in preclinical trials and is being explored for the treatment of chronic wounds that do not respond to conventional treatments, as well as inflammatory diseases affecting the skin and lungs. The Portugal-based biotech company also partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim earlier this year to explore the lead candidate for regenerative medicine applications.
In April 2024, Exogenus announced that it had secured an undisclosed amount of funding to help the company advance the development of Exo-101.
Immunethep
A spin-off from the University of Porto in northwest Portugal, Immunethep is an infectious disease biotech company and is primarily focused on fighting the spread of antibiotic resistance by developing antibacterial immunotherapies. For the past 10 years, the company has been involved in the discovery of a virulence mechanism that is highly immunosuppressive and is shared by different bacteria. The mechanism involves the excretion of a protein called glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) by bacteria that essentially shuts down the host’s immune system. The company’s research and development work is focused on the different steps of this mechanism and how to block it in a way that the immune system is able to respond to the infection.
The company is developing a preventive vaccine that neutralizes GAPDH to confer broad-spectrum protection against five life-threatening bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). According to the company’s website, preclinical trials performed on animal models have demonstrated high levels of efficacy against all five bacteria with a strong safety profile.
Immunethep’s technology has led to a research collaboration with Merck & Co. to develop innovative immunotherapies against bacterial infections.
LiMM Therapeutics
Operating in both Portugal and France, biotech Limm Therapeutics aims to decode the cross-talk between neurons and immune cells to treat diseases that are caused or mediated by the immune system, including infections, inflammation, and metabolic diseases. The technology, originating at the Henrique Veiga Fernandes lab in Portugal, regulates a specific type of immune cells called innate lymphoid cells that are involved in multiple physiological processes.
In December 2021, The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator evaluation committee determined that LiMM Therapeutics’ proposal for developing novel immunotherapy treatments for inflammation was highly innovative and had tremendous scale-up potential, prompting them to award €12.5 million ($13.5 million) in funding to LiMM Therapeutics. The company said at the time that the grant would go toward supporting safety studies in animals, as well as phase one and phase two clinical studies of renal disease in humans.
Luzitin
Luzitin is developing photosensitizing drugs that react to light with the goal of treating cancer. These compounds are used in photodynamic therapy, a procedure in which a drug is activated using light of a specific wavelength, releasing toxic compounds that kill abnormal cells, such as cancer cells and the blood vessels that feed them with nutrients. The main advantage of this for cancer therapy is that the rest of the body is spared by shining the light only where the tumor is located.
The company’s lead candidate is called Redaporfin, which is a third-generation bacteriochlorin molecule that has a greater ability to absorb light and convert it into active molecular species (reactive oxygen species), better depth penetration, and improved efficacy. The drug has received orphan drug designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Europe for biliary tract cancer. The company says that a pivotal phase 3 study is being planned.
Luzitin is also in the very early stages of developing LUZACNE, a photodynamic therapy option for moderate to severe acne.
TechnoPhage
TechnoPhage started off with a technology platform for the development of therapies based on bacteriophages – viruses that infect bacteria. Each bacteriophage kills a specific type of bacteria, making them much more precise than antibiotics. Bacteriophages can also kill drug-resistant bacteria, making them important alternatives to antibiotics. The company is in the process of running its first clinical trial – currently in phase 2 of development – of a bacteriophage cocktail that is intended to treat infections causing chronic ulcers. Other products in the bacteriophage pipeline are targeting respiratory and urinary tract infections.
Over the years, the company has expanded, and today, it also has platforms for the development of small therapeutic antibodies and drug discovery using zebrafish. These platforms are being used to develop therapies for neurological disorders and eye diseases, all of which are still in preclinical stages.
TREAT U
A spin-off of the University of Coimbra in central Portugal, biotech TREAT U aims to increase the efficacy of cancer drugs while reducing the nasty side effects often associated with them. The company has developed a platform called PEGASEMP that uses nanoparticles to deliver drugs not only to the target cancer cells but also to the cells of the blood vessels that nourish the tumor.
In preclinical trials, the platform was shown to work on breast cancer cells independently of whether they had the three most common genetic mutations for this form of cancer. PEGASEMP has also received orphan drug designation from the European Medicines Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of mesothelioma, a rare cancer that is typically linked to asbestos exposure.
Biotech: a growing area within Portugal
The biotech industry has been on the up in Portugal for the last few years. This can be seen by the fact that biotech in the country now ranks fifth out of the 35 technological rankings regarding patent publications – and more than 80% of all patents published by Portuguese biotechnology companies took place in the last ten years.
There has also been some outside interest in recent years related to the Portuguese biotech industry, suggesting that the technologies being developed in the country are attractive propositions. For example, Lymphact, a company developing a cancer therapy based on a type of immune cell known as gamma-delta T cells, was acquired in 2018 by Gamma Delta Therapeutics in the U.K. Earlier this year, the Swedish pharma CDMO giant Recipharm also acquired GenIbet, a Portuguese CDMO that develops novel biopharmaceuticals.
This article was originally published in March 2019 and has since been updated by Willow Shah-Neville in July 2024.
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