Germany-based Ethris GmbH has secured EUR 30 million to support the advance of its mRNA-based respiratory treatments into later-stage trials. The financing is structured as a loan agreement between Ethris and the European Investment Bank (EIB), backed by the European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (DG HERA) under its HERA Invest mechanism.

The EIB, the EU's long-term lending institution, provided the financing with DG HERA support. Ethris said the funds will support advancing its lead candidate, ETH47, from an ongoing Phase IIa trial in asthma into Phase IIb studies in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The deal follows a separate milestone in early 2026, when Ethris was part of a consortium awarded up to EUR 148 million under a European Commission contract to develop a novel pandemic influenza vaccine.

ETH47 is an mRNA-based therapeutic candidate encoding interferon lambda (IFNλ), developed on Ethris's proprietary Stabilized Non-Immunogenic mRNA (SNIM RNA) platform and delivered locally to the respiratory tract via inhalation or nasal spray using the company's Stabilized NanoParticle (SNaP) lipid nanoparticle platform. Rather than targeting specific viral proteins, ETH47 is designed to activate mucosal innate immune defenses at the point of viral entry, giving it a mechanism that the company said could address multiple respiratory virus families. First patient dosing in the Phase IIa asthma trial was reported.

Beyond ETH47, the financing also covers ETH52 and ETH53, Ethris's mucosal influenza vaccine candidates targeting pandemic preparedness. Ethris was founded in 2009 by Carsten Rudolph and Christian Plank out of academic research at the Technical University of Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Prior backers have included Cipla EU, OrbiMed, the Gates Foundation, and the European Union. Rudolph serves as chief executive and co-founder, and is cited as the lead inventor of the SNIM RNA technology.

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