Lumen Bioscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops and manufactures biologic drugs and vaccine candidates by genetically engineering spirulina to produce therapeutics at low cost and large scale. The company is advancing three clinical programs targeting C. difficile, norovirus, and traveler’s diarrhea, with its lead therapeutic LMN-101 in clinical development. Lumen completed a Phase 1 safety and dose-escalation trial of LMN-101 (NCT04098263) and planned to initiate a Phase 2 trial in early 2021. The company commissioned a dedicated cGMP manufacturing plant that is currently producing approximately 3 kg of drug material per week, which it says is sufficient for its planned clinical programs. Lumen positions its platform to enable rapid, mass-market production of biologics at a small fraction of the cost of traditional fermentation approaches. Financially, the company has raised a new $16M Series B and reports total equity and non-dilutive investment of $68M to support continued clinical advancement. Lumen Bioscience develops a bio-based product development platform that uses Spirulina to make high-value proteins and other molecules for foods, cosmetics, medicine and industry. Its first commercial product is a natural blue colorant for high-purity applications in the food and cosmetics industries, with a commercial launch funded for 2018. The company’s improved Spirulina strains produce more pigment at higher purity and lower cost without introducing foreign gene pathways, and it is developing more stable pigments and a palette of additional colors. Lumen is also exploring therapeutic applications of the platform, including recombinant oral vaccines that have demonstrated immune responses in a variety of species. Foundational research was conducted by Matrix Genetics; Lumen acquired Matrix’s IP, equipment, biological materials and key team members the prior April. The company raised new capital to scale its first product launch and to build out the microbiology tools and methods needed to unlock broader commercial potential.

Total raised

$29M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Sep 2020