Pharmaceutical Business review

Sirnaomics secures $25m to expand clinical programs of anti-fibrosis and anti-cancer RNAi therapeutics

This round of financing was led by Yuexiu New Industrial Investment, followed by Sangel Biomedical Venture Capital, HuaKong Equity Investment and Qianhai Shenghui Investment.

The proceeds will be used to expand the clinical programs of the lead anti-fibrosis and anti-cancer RNAi therapeutics, strengthen the management team to support growth and bolster the Company pre-clinical development of new drug candidates.

"Sirnaomics is very excited to form this collaboration with Series C1 investor group and we look forward to a close working relationship as we push to bring our therapeutics to market. This round of financing will enable our new clinical programs to move forward in the US, China and EU to meet unmet medical needs. We will also expand our pre-clinical drug development efforts on delivery technology and pipeline buildups," said founder and CEO of the company, Dr. Patrick Y. Lu.

“This capital raise represents a key milestone for the company and allows us to expand our systemic anti-fibrosis disease treatment and oncology programs. The financing will give us a significant runway and allow us to achieve critical milestones that will drive growth for our existing investors and attract new investment and partnering opportunities," said Dr. Michael Molyneaux, chief medical officer of the company.

Sirnaomics' STP705 is an siRNA (small interfering RNA) therapeutic candidate targeting TGF-β1 and COX-2. STP705 takes advantage of a dual-targeted inhibitory property and PNP-enhanced delivery to directly impact tissue fibrotic activity as well as inhibit tumor activity.

The product has been validated in robust preclinical models and has demonstrated both anti-fibrotic activity and anti-tumor. The product has a fully-developed validated manufacturing process and the well-established pre-clinical safety profile for STP705 supports its use in human clinical studies with a broad application potential.

 STP705 is currently under a Phase IIa clinical study for Hypertrophic Scar (HTS) treatment in USA, and the same indication has also been approved for clinical study by Chinese FDA.  

Source: Company Press Release