Lumavita AG is a specialty biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing to market innovative anti-infectives for women’s health. Based in Basel, Switzerland, Lumavita was recently financed by a syndicate, led by Atlas Venture, BB Biotech Ventures and BioMedInvest with CHF18 million (EUR11 million). The company’s proprietary product portfolio has one product under regulatory review in Switzerland, one in clinical development and one in late-stage pre-clinical development. Lumavita is uniquely positioned as the only specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the global development and marketing of new drugs to combat infections for women’s health, addressing areas of high unmet medical need.

Management

Lumavita is led by a highly experienced management team with a strong track record in commercialisation, development and regulatory affairs in both the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Cees Winnips is the company’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer who has a significant background in pharmaceutical development. Nicholas Benedict, Lumavita’s CEO, has complementary expertise in commercial roles including COO of Novartis UK and Chief Business Officer for Basilea Pharmaceutica.

Products

Lumavita’s product portfolio includes FemiFect® (pentamycin) an antibiotic for the treatment of vaginitis. FemiFect® is unique because, unlike currently available therapies, it has the potential to treat all three major causes of vaginitis (bacterial, fungal and protozoal infections). Vaginitis is a common problem affecting up to 10% of women every year, generating 110 million prescriptions with a worldwide market value of $2.4 billion. Key milestones targeted for FemiFect® include its imminent launch in Switzerland, additional regulatory approvals in Latin America, CIS and Asia.and completion of the on-going Phase IIb dose-optimisation programme for Europe and North America, aimed at reducing the number of treatment days to three.

Also in Lumavita’s portfolio is LMV-601, a first-in-class PC-PLC inhibitor. LMV-601 is in Phase I clinical development for the potential treatment of viral infections such as Human Papilloma Virus. LMV-601 was discovered at DKFZ, Germany’s renowned Cancer Research Centre.

Commercialisation

Both FemiFect® (pentamycin) and LMV-601 are anti-infective products targeted towards gynaecologists, a specialty target audience.

Lumavita has established a network of partnerships with distributors in Switzerland, Latin America, Asia and CIS in preparation for the imminent launch of FemiFect®.

Lumavita retains all rights to FemiFect® in the world’s key markets. Commercialisation options remain open for high dose FemiFect®, including the potential to address the specialty gynecologist audience through Lumavita’s own future sales and marketing infrastructure.