Lexington, Massachusetts-based Nortiva Bio, Inc. has launched as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on extending the duration of oral small-molecule therapies, backed by a USD 5 million grant from the Gates Foundation for its lead program in contraception. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Innoviva, Inc. (Nasdaq: INVA), which acquired the underlying LYNX drug delivery platform from Lyndra Therapeutics in 2025. No external venture financing was disclosed.
The strategic rationale for Innoviva centers on converting the LYNX platform — which demonstrated proof of concept across multiple therapeutic areas and completed a Phase III study under Lyndra — into a commercial-stage asset through proprietary development and industry partnerships. Nortiva's lead program is a once-monthly oral contraceptive, with preclinical proof of concept already established for sustained hormone delivery via the platform.
The LYNX platform uses a standard-size capsule containing a structure that unfolds upon reaching the stomach, where it is retained for a programmed delivery window of up to one month. The system releases drug at a controlled, stable rate, reducing the concentration peaks and troughs associated with daily dosing. The platform is described as modular and compatible with a broad range of small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients across varying potency, solubility, and molecular weight profiles, and is protected by more than 50 granted patents.
The platform's scientific foundation originates from the laboratories of Robert Langer and Giovanni Traverso at MIT, the same researchers who co-founded Lyndra Therapeutics. Langer, an MIT Institute Professor and co-founder of more than 40 biotechnology companies including Moderna, serves as advisory board chair. Traverso, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, also sits on the board.