Altesa BioSciences Series B Raises USD 75 Million to Advance Rhinovirus Antiviral in COPD

Altesa BioSciences, a clinical-stage company headquartered in Atlanta focused on developing antiviral therapies for chronic lung disease, has closed an oversubscribed Series B financing totaling USD 75 million. The Altesa BioSciences Series B round will fund advancement of vapendavir, the company's lead oral antiviral candidate, into a Phase 2b trial evaluating its use in treating rhinovirus infections in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Vapendavir is a capsid-binding inhibitor that blocks rhinovirus from entering host cells, and the company describes it as a first-in-class therapeutic directed at the viral trigger of respiratory exacerbations rather than their downstream inflammatory consequences.

Investors and Use of Proceeds

Forbion, the European life sciences venture capital firm, led the round, marking a notable Forbion biotech investment in the respiratory space. Sanofi participated as a new investor, joining existing backers Medicxi, Pitango, and Atlantic Partners. Jon Edwards, a partner at Forbion, will join Altesa's board of directors in connection with the financing, the company said. Moncef Slaoui will transition from board member to chair of the board.

Altesa said the proceeds will be used to initiate the CARDINAL study, a Phase 2b multinational randomized placebo-controlled trial designed to enroll 900 COPD patients across the United States and the United Kingdom. Participants will be monitored over time and randomized to receive one of two doses of vapendavir or placebo upon developing a confirmed rhinovirus infection. The trial's primary endpoint is improvement in respiratory symptoms as measured by patient-reported outcomes, with secondary endpoints including time to symptom resolution, quality of life, healthcare resource utilization, and lung function. The company expects enrollment to begin in Q2 2026.

Vapendavir and the CARDINAL Study

Vapendavir is an orally administered small molecule that targets the rhinovirus capsid, preventing viral attachment and uncoating. Rhinovirus infections are the predominant cause of acute respiratory exacerbations in COPD patients, events that drive hospitalizations, accelerated lung function decline, and increased mortality. Despite this, no antiviral therapies targeting rhinovirus are currently approved, leaving a substantial gap in the management of respiratory exacerbations therapy for patients with chronic lung disease.

The CARDINAL study builds on data from a recently completed rhinovirus challenge study in COPD patients, in which participants were experimentally infected with rhinovirus and treated with vapendavir or placebo. In that study, vapendavir reduced upper and lower airway symptoms, shortened illness duration, lowered inflammatory markers, and better maintained small airway lung function compared to placebo, the company said. The Phase 2b trial is designed to replicate these findings in a naturalistic infection setting with a larger patient population.

Katharine Knobil, Altesa's chief medical officer and a former CMO at GSK, will lead the CARDINAL investigation. Brett P. Giroir, Altesa's chief executive officer, is a former US Assistant Secretary of Health and former Acting US FDA Commissioner.

Pipeline and Broader Therapeutic Ambitions

Vapendavir is Altesa's sole disclosed clinical-stage asset. The company has described broader potential applications for vapendavir chronic lung disease populations beyond COPD, including asthma, where rhinovirus infections similarly trigger exacerbations. However, the company has not disclosed formal clinical plans for asthma at this stage.

Prior clinical work on vapendavir includes a completed Phase 2 randomized controlled trial in 52 COPD patients with acute rhinovirus or enterovirus upper respiratory infection, as well as completed Phase 1 studies evaluating pharmacokinetics and food effects and an ADME mass balance study in healthy participants.

Altesa BioSciences Series B in Context: Company History and Asset Origin

Altesa BioSciences did not discover vapendavir internally. The compound was originally developed as BTA798 by Biota Pharmaceuticals, an Australian antiviral-focused biotech that advanced it through Phase 2 trials in asthma patients with rhinovirus-triggered exacerbations. Following a corporate merger, Biota became Aviragen Therapeutics, which deprioritized the program. Altesa subsequently acquired or in-licensed the rights to vapendavir and repositioned it for rhinovirus COPD treatment, a strategy that leverages the existing human safety and efficacy data package while targeting what the company views as a more compelling clinical population. The financial terms of that acquisition have not been publicly disclosed.

The company does not operate a proprietary drug discovery platform. Its strategy is asset-centric, built around clinical repositioning of an externally sourced compound with an established mechanism and prior human data. There is no publicly confirmed connection to a university spinout or academic technology transfer agreement, though the broader scientific rationale linking rhinovirus to COPD exacerbations draws on decades of academic pulmonology research.

Details of any prior Altesa BioSciences funding rounds preceding this Series B have not been publicly disclosed. No additional licensing deals, co-development agreements, or commercial partnerships beyond the vapendavir acquisition have been announced. The Altesa BioSciences funding to date, now totaling at least USD 75 million from this round alone, positions the company to generate Phase 2b data that could inform a path toward registrational studies, though the timeline for any such advancement will depend on the CARDINAL trial's outcomes.

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