Syntis Bio is joining a growing group of smaller companies that are moving into the obesity treatment space — but not with a GLP-1.
Instead, the Boston-based biotech is launching SYNT-101, an oral daily pill that the company hopes will mimic the effects of a gastric bypass by blocking absorption in the upper part of the small intestine and instead diverting it to the lower small intestine. The drug is already in early, investigator-led human trials, with a data readout expected by the end of this year that will potentially support an IND application with the FDA next year.
Syntis, led by CEO Rahul Dhanda and co-founded by MIT professors Giovanni Traverso and Robert Langer, raised a seed round of $15.5 million last year with support from investors including Safar Partners, BOLD Capital Partners, Touchdown Ventures, Colorcon Ventures and Portal Innovations.
Traverso and Langer created the company’s platform, called SYNT, following a meeting with the Gates Foundation for a different program. The Foundation asked Traverso’s group what was next — and initially, they wanted to find a way to better deliver drugs to children for tropical diseases in the developing world. That led to SYNT, which is an oral delivery system for a polydopamine coating that can cover tissues like the upper portion of the small intestine.
“The interesting thing about SYNT-101 is how it is different from the platform, but it’s also not a very great departure from the platform,” Dhanda told Endpoints News. “What makes it different is that it’s formulated a little bit differently, but it uses all the same components.”
“It seems like everyone who’s coming into the market is just trying to do a different version of GLP-1, and what we need aren’t different GLP-1, what we need are complementary therapies that are both effective, but also proven mechanisms,” Dhanda added.
In just the last few months, smaller players have launched with an obesity focus to challenge Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, like Metsera’s $290 million jumpstart in April with a GLP-1, Hercules’ March launch with investigational GLP-1 and GIP candidates, and SixPeaks Bio, which is developing a dual-specific antibody.
Syntis is also exploring other uses of its technology. In April, it acquired early-stage enzymes from California-based Codexis for two diseases — homocystinuria and maple syrup urine disease — both of which don’t have approved disease-modifying therapies. Syntis plans to choose one of the two enzymes, that have completed non-human primate studies, to file an IND for next year to begin trials using the SYNT platform to better deliver the therapeutics.
“Here we have an opportunity to potentially combine these enzymes with our system in a way to make them even more effective than what’s been demonstrated,” Dhanda said.
Editor’s note: This article was corrected to note the spelling of Robert Langer’s name.