Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca invested $140m in US-based RNA therapeutics developer and strategic partner Moderna Therapeutics on Wednesday, increasing its stake in the company to 9%.
Moderna is developing what it calls messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics, mRNA being responsible for carrying the genetic instructions transcribed from DNA that cells use as a guide to producing proteins that direct the body’s biological functions.
The result will hopefully be in vivo drugs that will produce antibodies, proteins and protein constructs inside cells in order to treat conditions that cannot currently be cured with drugs.
The company has formed several collaborative partnerships with both venture-backed peers and larger pharmaceutical companies.
AstraZeneca first took an equity stake in Moderna after signing a collaboration agreement in 2013 to jointly develop mRNA treatments for cancer and cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases. It paid $240m upfront, with an additional $180m dependent on technical milestones.
The collaboration bore fruit late last month when AstraZeneca filed a clinical trial application with Paul Ehrlich Institute and the German Federal Ministry of Health to begin a phase 1 clinical trial for AZD8601, an mRNA therapeutic for cardiovascular disease.
AstraZeneca’s investment follows its involvement in the last funding Moderna raised, a $450m round in January 2015 that valued Moderna at $3bn, and which stands as the largest ever raised by a venture-stage drug developer.
The 2015 round included another strategic partner, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, as well as Viking Global Investors, Invus, RA Capital Management and Wellington Management.
Alexion had already made a $25m equity investment in Moderna as part of a January 2014 agreement to develop drugs for severe and life-threatening rare diseases.
Flagship Ventures, the venture capital firm that incubated Moderna, which uses technology licensed from Harvard University, led a $40m round for the company in 2012. It was followed with $135m equity round in 2013, according to a securities filing.