European Investment Bank Group Activity Report 2024: Adjustable antibodies

In many ways, Fabentech is a product of plagues. The French maker of treatments for deadly viruses and biotoxins got its start with two infamous disease outbreaks: Ebola and avian influenza, known as “fowl plague.” Bertrand Lépine founded the company in 2009 with the idea of fine-tuning technology licensed from Sanofi Pasteur, where he worked previously, to create polyclonal antibody treatments that would neutralise lethal viruses and toxins better than existing techniques, such as monoclonal therapies. Sanofi Pasteur had already developed polyclonal antibody treatments that prevented snake and scorpion venom from penetrating human cells. Lépine thought the same approach could be used for deadly diseases.

By 2012, the company was conducting clinical trials for a treatment for avian flu, and by 2015 it was working with the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency on Ebola therapies. In 2017, it partnered with the French Army to develop an antidote for a highly lethal biotoxin that comes from plants. While all the treatments were promising, none of them found a big market. Before the pandemic, Europe wasn’t actively addressing the potential threats of bio-attacks or new forms of infectious disease. That contrasted with the United States, which after the September 11 attacks financed biotech startups that were developing treatments. “There just wasn’t a culture of preparing for biothreats in Europe,” says Sébastien Iva, chief executive of Fabentech.