Access to new medicines targeting unmet medical need is a challenge for both the Pharmaceutical industry and the member states of the European union. For the last decade the pharmaceutical sector has faced fundamental dilemmas: - The average cost to develop a single drug has tripled in a decade - Patent expirations have reduced revenue from blockbuster drugs - Attrition in the drug development pipeline remains high. - The rate of innovation in pharmaceutical development is low because of a focus on a restricted number of drug target classes and emphasis on developing “me-too” drugs. In this context, ENYO has developed an innovative systems biology based approach inspired by viruses to identify patentable chemistries directed at new human disease targets. The feasibility of this approach has been successfully demonstrated in 2015 with the identification of 40 largely unexplored novel human targets against influenza virus, which eventually resulted in the generation of leads ready for development as a therapeutic for influenza. Project MIMESIS aims to scale-up ENYO’s systems biology approach to discover original preclinical assets against human targets not previously considered tractable to drug development in both infectious (Influenza, HRV, RSV, TB and Zika) and non-infectious disease contexts (Oncology). It will scale-up the number of drug discovery targets and the disease scope and initiate the deployment of the approach to the pharmaceutical industry at the global scale. The MIMESIS approach will develop novel starting points for the development of new drugs in diseases with unmet clinical need. It will contribute to better access to medicines which will translate into higher pharmaceutical benefit to the patients. The approach has never been used before in the pharmaceutical industry and is transferable to any human disease.

ENYO Pharma is a late-stage clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company founded in 2014. Its mission is to develop innovative renal therapies to treat patients with kidney failure to prevent end-stage renal disease, dialysis and kidney transplantation. Among renal indications, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is recognized as a global public health problem because it affects 850 million people worldwide and will become the fifth cause of death by 2040. There is no cure for CKD. The current treatments mainly consist of marketed drugs dedicated to other indications (anti-hypertensives, diuretics, anti-diabetics drugs) with limited outcomes. To address the critical problem of these underserved CKD patients, ENYO Pharma is currently developing a pipeline of drugs with unique curative potential that is expected to fundamentally change the management of CKD indications. From a small synthetic molecule, Vonafexor, the company has created a family of molecules with several analogues exhibiting new and unique properties. Based on robust data obtained with Vonafexor in nine completed Phase 1/2 clinical studies in over 300 subjects, ENYO Pharma is focused on the development of its innovative new once-daily oral medication, Vonafexor-Lys. Vonafexor-Lys is the company value driver. The STOP-CKD project “Strong Therapeutic Opportunity To Protect From Chronic Kidney Disease” will accelerate the clinical validation of Vonafexor-Lys in a leading European nephrology center. By the end of 2025, we will have achieved the industrialization of the drug product and carried out three decisive renal clinical studies in Europe. This will enable product registration by 2029-2030. The EIC accelerator will be a fantastic booster for Vonafexor's pipeline for major kidney diseases. This will also support ENYO Pharma to continue its development in other critical diseases related to kidney impairment.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has emerged as the largest global health threat to humanity in this century. According to the World Health Organisation Situation Report of March 28th 2020, 571,659 patients were diagnosed with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 26,493 deaths were reported globally. The wide spectrum of clinical symptoms, disease severity in high risk individuals, transmission efficiency and high mortality, raises an immediate need for vaccines or therapeutics. Given that the viral variant is new in the human population and emerged less than 4 months ago, there is no vaccine or approved therapies. The Corona Accelerated R&D in Europe (CARE) consortium is a coalition of 37 globally renowned academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and non-profit research organizations who have committed to rapidly and efficiently address this emergent health threat, and the main objectives are: the development of therapeutics (i) to provide an emergency response towards the current COVID-19 pandemic by drug repositioning and (ii) to address the current and/or future coronavirus outbreaks by broad-spectrum small-molecule drug discovery and/or virus-neutralizing antibody discovery. To achieve this, a collection of repurposed drugs, focused libraries and small molecule libraries will be screened against SARS-CoV-2, other emerging SARS-CoV-2 clades and related coronavirus genera in phenotypic or target-based assays. A focused medicinal chemistry campaign will identify small-molecule hits, and Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion (ADME), pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD), potency and safety of these therapeutic candidates will be assessed in vitro and in animal models. Virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies will be generated and further characterized. Immune markers will be identified contributing to the host immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infections, and the correlation with clinical and virological outcomes will be determined. Finally, lead candidates will be advanced into Phase1 and Phase 2 clinical trials in humans. With this reactive response, the CARE consortium is dedicated to win the fight against coronavirus.