Aileron Therapeutics pulled a hard pivot in 2023, merging with Lung Therapeutics to gain a new pipeline and investor base. Now, the biotech has distanced itself from its premerger form by rebranding as Rein Therapeutics.
Management said the new name, logo, website and branding elements reflect the company’s focus on developing “first-in-class treatments to rein in diseases.” The biotech’s lead drug candidate is a potential treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that it picked up through the merger with Lung. Rein shared phase 1b data on the asset in November and plans to start a phase 2 trial in the first half of 2025.
Rebranding distances the biotech from the struggles that led to the merger with Lung, which left Aileron shareholders owning 14% of the combined company. Aileron had previously raised money from Eli Lilly, Novartis and Roche as a private company and went public in 2017, pricing its shares at $15 each in the IPO.
However, a push to use ALRN-6924, a stapled peptide, to reactivate p53-mediated tumor suppression suffered setbacks. And an attempt to reposition the asset as a way to prevent chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression also ended in failure. By February 2023, Aileron was down to its last three employees, all of whom were working to find a deal to set the company on a new path.
The team chose the Lung merger as the new path, shifting their focus away from cancer and toward IPF and other pulmonary diseases. Rein sees the IPF asset, LTI-03, as a potential blockbuster that could have a better safety profile than Boehringer Ingelheim’s Ofev. As well as the IPF candidate, the merger gave Aileron a phase-2b-ready treatment for loculated pleural effusions and a cystic fibrosis program.
Finding funding for the programs remains an issue. Rein ended September with $17.7 million, a sum that management predicted would fund operations into June 2025.