As U.S. Slashes $500M in mRNA Funding, Bordeaux Biotech bYoRNA Raises €1.5M to Reinvent RNA Production

Messenger RNA (mRNA) has dominated the global biotech conversation since the COVID-19 pandemic, when companies like BioNTech and Moderna used the emerging technology to rapidly develop vaccines.

But the field now faces a moment of adversity because in early August, the U.S. government cut $500 million in funding for mRNA research, effectively terminating 22 mRNA vaccine research projects being funded by the U.S. Center for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). The decision to gut mRNA funding was made by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, a leading vaccine skeptic who was appointed to the post earlier this year by President Trump.

In this complex climate, Bordeaux-based bYoRNA is looking to make a breakthrough with a radically different approach to using mRNA, one that it believes could make mRNA therapies cheaper, safer, and more scalable. The company announced a €1.5 million pre-seed round in July. The round was led by Polytechnique Ventures, with participation from IRDI Capital Investissement and sector-specialized business angels.

CEO Pascal Viguié described his motivation in simple terms: “The day one of our RNAs saves a child’s life, I will have reached my goal. This is about making treatments accessible to everyone, not just in Europe or the U.S., but also in emerging countries.”

Why RNA Matters - and Why Current Production Falls Short

bYoRNA was founded in 2022 by a trio combining scientific, industrial, and entrepreneurial experience: L'Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) researcher Dr. Chantal Pichon, biotech executive Dr. Thierry Ziegler, and Viguié, an École Polytechnique and Oxford graduate with a background in nanomedicine.

Their work focuses on RNA, or ribonucleic acid, a family of molecules found in all living cells. The most famous variety, messenger RNA (mRNA), acts as a genetic “instruction manual”: carrying the code from DNA to the ribosomes, which assemble proteins, the building blocks of life.

In medicine, synthetic mRNA is used to give cells temporary instructions, for example, to make harmless viral proteins that train the immune system. That’s how the first COVID-19 vaccines worked.

Today’s mRNA manufacturing relies almost exclusively on in vitro enzymatic synthesis, an expensive and technically limited process. It produces mRNA of inconsistent quality and struggles with long molecules, which are increasingly important in advanced therapies. The result: high costs, limited scalability, and sometimes problematic side effects.

A Yeast-Based Breakthrough

bYoRNA is tackling these problems head-on. Instead of synthesizing RNA artificially, its patented platform produces therapeutic mRNA inside yeast cells through fermentation.

Its bioprocessing approach offers several advantages:

• Longer RNAs can be produced reliably
• Natural protection from yeast proteins improves RNA stability
• Lower immunogenicity, since the RNAs undergo natural maturation
• Higher purity, thanks to established purification methods
• Up to 100 times lower cost than synthetic methods

As Viguié explained: “Synthetic RNA is expensive, fragile, and prone to side effects. We believe bioproduction will let us make RNA that is cheaper, safer, and higher quality.”

Partnerships and Next Steps

The startup has already signed a strategic partnership with TRON, the German research institute founded by BioNTech’s creators and a leader in personalized immunotherapy. It also counts Jeff Coller, head of the mRNA department at Johns Hopkins University, as a scientific advisor.

In the short term, bYoRNA plans to finalize its molecular design and production platforms, conduct preclinical testing of its RNA in animal models, and prepare for (human) clinical trials in 2027. 

The business model is classic biotech: Byorna will not develop its own mRNA vaccines, which can be a long and costly process. Instead, the startup plans to license its technology to pharmaceutical partners and earn royalties from drugs manufactured using its platform.

Viguié hopes that their approach will lead to the local production of mRNA vaccines around the world:  “Local production is critical. No region should depend entirely on another for access to life-saving drugs."

Competing in a Crowded - and Shifting - Landscape

Globally, hundreds of companies are working on RNA, from Slovak startup Sensible Biotech to the giants Moderna (U.S.) and BioNTech (Germany). Most still rely on synthetic methods.

bYoRNA’s patented bioprocessing technology is a potential game changer, but getting it from the lab into vaccines will require further financing and support. Back in July, Viguié was looking to the U.S. as a critical market.

“The first world market is the U.S. We need a reliable producer and American investors,” Viguié said. “If we can’t go there, it will complicate things. However, all countries are now aware of the importance of RNA, so I’m not too worried about political change."

It now looks as though geopolitical and financial uncertainty could reshuffle the field. 

Even as European startups like bYoRNA push forward, the outlook for mRNA in the U.S. has grown murkier with last month’s announced cuts to federal funding for mRNA research programs by the Trump administration. At the time, Kennedy declared that the technology posed too many risks, claims widely ridiculed by the scientific community.

"[T]he data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu," he said. He added that mRNA vaccines can help "encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine."

In a contentious U.S. Senate hearing on September 4, Secretary Kennedy testified about his decision, again questioning the long-term safety and sustainability of mRNA therapies and vaccines and suggesting any research data from pharmaceutical companies couldn't be trusted.

“We were told again and again the vaccines would prevent transmission, they prevent infection. It wasn’t true. They knew it from the start,” Kennedy said.

The rejection of mRNA by the current administration is not without some irony. One of the greatest accomplishments of Trump's first term was Operation Warp Speed, which used mRNA to rapidly develop vaccines that saved millions of lives. During the Congressional hearing, one senator asked Kennedy if he thought Trump should receive the Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed.

“Absolutely, senator,” Kennedy said.

The senator then noted: “But you just told Sen. [Michael] Bennet that the Covid vaccine killed more people than Covid."

The Big Bet

For investors and startups, this uncertainty creates both challenges and opportunities. As U.S. support wavers, European biotech ecosystems may be better positioned to carry the next wave of innovation thanks to initiatives like France’s Biotech Santé cluster and the EU’s EIC Transition funding

bYoRNA is still at an early stage, but its ambition is clear: to turn RNA from a fragile, costly research tool into a robust, industrialized building block of 21st-century medicine.

For an industry grappling with both technical and political headwinds, Bordeaux may seem like an unlikely place to reboot the RNA revolution. But if bYoRNA’s yeast-based approach succeeds, it could help fulfill mRNA’s still-unfinished promise and make lifesaving therapies more accessible worldwide, despite wavering support in the U.S..

“Half of all medicines in the future could be RNA-based,” said Viguié. “If we can prove our process works, France and Europe can be at the forefront.”