Rajeev Venkayya, who previously headed Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ global vaccine business unit, is leading a new biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of new therapeutics for COVID-19 and its variants, as well as future epidemic and pandemic disease threats.
Launched on Tuesday, the company Aerium Therapeutics — whose name is derived from the Latin word for “airborne” — has established operations in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as Lausanne, Switzerland. Its initial focus is on the development of monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, for COVID-19 and its variants, and is currently working on two mAbs that have shown “potent neutralization” of all COVID-19 variants of concern, including omicron and its subvariants, according to a news release. The company published the preclinical testing data in preprint on bioRxiv.
“Because these antibodies show strong activity against all VOCs identified to date, we believe they have the potential to ‘future-proof’ pandemic plans,” Venkayya, CEO at Aerium, said in an emailed response to Devex.