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Inventiva
Frédéric Cren and Pierre Broqua built Inventiva to conquer NASH with a pan-PPAR agonist. The biotech is in a pivotal Phase III trial with lanifibranor.
Inventiva
Inventiva was founded in 2011 in Daillens, Switzerland, by Frédéric Cren, its CEO, and Pierre Broqua, its Chief Scientific Officer, both veterans of the pharmaceutical research ecosystem. The company was built to address high-unmet-need fibrotic diseases, specifically targeting non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a progressive liver condition. In 2017, the firm completed an initial public offering on Euronext Paris, anchoring its operations in the French biotech corridor while maintaining its Swiss scientific roots. The firm's strategy centers on a small-molecule drug discovery engine, with its lead asset, lanifibranor, acting as a pan-PPAR agonist in late-stage clinical development. A pivotal Phase III trial, NATiV3, began enrolling patients in 2021 with results that will determine the drug's regulatory path. Beyond NASH, the company's pipeline includes odiparcil for mucopolysaccharidoses, giving it a second rare-disease program. Inventiva's business model relies on strategic partnerships for capital; in April 2022, it closed a deal with CTTQ Pharma granting the latter rights to lanifibranor in Greater China. The firm also has a research collaboration with AbbVie, terminated in 2019, focused on autoimmune diseases, which highlights its legacy of licensing its discovery platform to larger pharmaceutical partners. Inventiva reported 81.9 million euros in cash and equivalents at the end of 2022 (per the firm, 2023), with a workforce concentrated at its French headquarters. In June 2022, the company secured a 25 million euro credit facility from the European Investment Bank to help fund its Phase III program. The company's operational footprint narrowed in early 2023 when it paused enrollment in its NATiV3 trial temporarily to address patient safety observations, a move that underscored the execution risk in a sector where no therapy has yet gained regulatory approval. The firm maintains a publicly traded vehicle on Euronext Paris under the symbol IVA. Inventiva's structural differentiator is not its therapeutic area — dozens of biotechs race for a NASH treatment — but its position as a Europe-listed pure-play on the pan-PPAR hypothesis. Lanifibranor's mechanism, agonizing all three PPAR isoforms, is a binary bet on a mechanism distinct from the FXR agonists and GLP-1 approaches dominating the NASH landscape. The company's survival is therefore tied wholly to the scientific validity of this single target class, making its Phase III data readout a make-or-break event for the firm's independent existence.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2011
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
France
City
Daillens
Corporate office
50 rue de Dijon, 21121 Daillens, France
Principals
Frédéric Cren
Chief Executive Officer and co-founder
Pierre Broqua
Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is Inventiva's lead drug candidate and its mechanism?
The lead candidate is lanifibranor, an oral pan-PPAR agonist. It activates all three peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor isoforms — alpha, delta, and gamma. This multi-target mechanism is designed to reduce liver fibrosis and steatosis simultaneously, which differentiates it from competitors targeting only FXR or GLP-1 pathways. The drug is in a pivotal Phase III trial known as NATiV3.
Who are Inventiva's primary financial or strategic partners?
Inventiva has a commercialization partnership with CTTQ Pharma for lanifibranor's development and marketing in Greater China, signed in 2022. The company also received a 25 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank in 2022. It is publicly traded on Euronext Paris, making institutional public-market investors its primary capital source. A previous research collaboration with AbbVie in autoimmune disease ended in 2019.
What is the status and risk profile of the NATiV3 Phase III trial?
The NATiV3 trial for lanifibranor in NASH began enrollment in 2021. In early 2023, Inventiva temporarily paused enrollment to address patient safety observations and paused enrollment to implement protocol modifications. The trial's final data readout, anticipated in the second half of 2024, represents a significant binary event — approval would make it the first pan-PPAR agonist for NASH, while failure would eliminate the firm's primary value driver.
Is Inventiva a pharmaceutical company or a clinical research organization?
Inventiva is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, not a service provider. It conducts its own drug discovery, preclinical development, and clinical trials. While it has historically licensed its drug discovery platform to partners, its primary identity today is that of a product-focused biotech. Its current operations are almost entirely directed at advancing its proprietary pipeline toward regulatory approval.
What are Inventiva's pipeline assets beyond lanifibranor?
The firm's secondary pipeline asset is odiparcil, a small molecule therapy for a subset of mucopolysaccharidoses, a group of rare genetic diseases. The program has completed a Phase IIa proof-of-concept study. However, Inventiva's public disclosures make clear that capital allocation is weighted heavily toward lanifibranor, and odiparcil remains a earlier-stage, partnered or out-licensing opportunity rather than a near-term revenue driver.
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