bYoRNA is developing a platform for designing and manufacturing messenger RNA in yeast, rather than through in vitro transcription (IVT), to produce less immunogenic, less expensive, and more effective drugs. The target market is threefold: cancer immunotherapies, vaccines against infectious diseases, and gene therapies for rare diseases.

Long RNAs (> 5,000 nucleotides) enable gene therapies that are 10x more precise and cancer vaccines that are 50x less immunogenic. However, 99% of long RNAs produced by IVT are fragmented and unusable, whereas yeast can produce them naturally. Since 2022, the founders, Pascal Viguié (MSc Oxford-MBA Columbia, entrepreneur with a €30M exit), Thierry Ziegler (PhD, formerly at SANOFI, MERCK & CELLECTIS), and Chantal Pichon (PhD, inventor of the patent), supported by a team of 10 people, have quadrupled the length of the RNA produced, increased the yield 80-fold and increased the purity 100-fold (from 0.1% to 10%). Their collaborations on long RNAs with a major veterinary pharmaceutical company and the academic branch of a global mRNA leader will result in royalties ranging from 1 to 5%, as they enable these players to target new markets. By the end of 2026, after animal testing, they will approach BioNTech, Moderna, and Strand Therapeutics.

bYoRNA’s cell-based factory allows producing mRNA within yeast sub-compartments which protect the RNA from degradation. This technology was patented in 2018 (WO2018/171946) in Europe and the USA. bYoRNA’s solution enables the production of conventional and long mRNA, solving the challenge of manufacturing long mRNA (>5,000 nucleotides).

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