Dutch-based Matisse Pharmaceuticals secures €3.6M to help treat sepsis

Geelan, the Netherlands-based Matisse Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage company developing a medicinal product for sepsis, announced on Thursday, that it has secured €3.6M in a fresh funding round. 

The Dutch company received funding from Brightlands Venture Partners, private investment companies, informal investors, and the management team.

The funding will allow Matisse to continue its preparation for a large-scale phase II study in sepsis patients. 

By 2024, Matisse aims to complete its Series A funding round. This funding will cover the full execution of phase II clinical trials, the scaling up of production to commercial level, and the advancement of various research and development projects. 

These plans will further strengthen the organisation, claims the company. 

Matisse says it will announce the results of the phase 1/2a Histoseps trial in sepsis patients, which is a major milestone for the company.

“We are thankful for the confidence of our existing and new investors in our company and developments. Being able to close this round just before a major milestone publication and in a difficult 2023 biotech funding environment, underpins the support for and importance of finding a solution for treating sepsis”, says Marcel Jacobs, CEO of Matisse Pharmaceuticals.

According to the WHO, sepsis is the leading cause of death. Of the 49 million patients globally suffering from sepsis every year, more than 20 per cent die. 

According to a recent Journal of Critical Care Medicine study, sepsis is the most common cause of in-hospital deaths, costing over $62B annually in the USA alone.

However, there is no effective treatment against sepsis currently.

Matisse Pharmaceuticals: Development medicine to fight sepsis

Founded in 2014, Matisse Pharmaceuticals claims to have developed a solution for treating sepsis by using a non-anticoagulant fraction of heparin called M6229 to neutralise toxic circulatory histones. 

The technology used by the company is built on the finding that when some patients are affected by sepsis, certain proteins known as histones are discharged by the innate immune system and apoptotic and necrotic cells into the bloodstream. These proteins tend to be toxic to other cells. 

Due to this self-enforcing cascade, people may die from organ failure within one or two days. 

Preclinical results have shown that by neutralising the toxic histones with Matisse’s product M6229, the negative cascade is inhibited bythe  neutralisation of cationic histones by anionic M6229.