US-based circular RNA therapy developer Orna Therapeutics launched with more than $100m in funding yesterday from investors including pharmaceutical firms Astellas, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Taiho and Gilead Sciences.
The total includes an $80m series A round co-led by Taiho Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Taiho, F2 Ventures and MPM Capital.
Astellas, Gilead and Novartis took part through Astellas Venture Management, Kite Pharma and Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research respectively, investing alongside Pags Group.
The company previously raised seed capital from MPM Capital, which incubated the business to commercialise research conducted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It did not confirm whether the seed round accounted for the whole $20m figure.
Founded in 2019, Orna is developing therapeutics for diseases including cancer, autoimmune and genetic disorders based on RNA in the form of a circle, or oRNA, which is more effective and easier to produce, store and deliver than its linear counterpart, it said.
Thomas Barnes, Orna’s chief executive, said: “Our elegant solution to the circular RNA engineering problem has allowed us to reveal that oRNA is simply the better format for long coding RNA.
“Furthermore, our initial combination of oRNAs with technology to deliver them to immune cells has paved the way to create ground-breaking new therapies to fundamentally change the way we treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.”
