US-based biopharmaceutical company RaNa Therapeutics closed a $55m oversubscribed series B round yesterday co-led by MRL Ventures, the early-stage therapeutics fund of pharmaceutical company Merck, and hedge fund Baupost Group.
Pfizer Venture Investments, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical company Pfizer; SR One, the corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline; agricultural corporation Monsanto and MS Ventures, another Merck subsidiary, also contributed capital.
The round also included Partners Innovation Fund, which acts as the joint venture fund of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Rock Springs Capital Management, Brookside Capital, Leerink Partners, Atlas Venture, Omega Funds and an unnamed blue chip public investment fund.
RaNa’s technology enables drugs to target specific genes and activate proteins in the body which then fight a disease. The company is initially focusing on treatments for rare genetic disorders, inflammation and cancer, as well as metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.
The platform was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital, and RaNa holds an exclusive license to the technology.
RaNa will use the funding to continue development of its platform and support preclinical research through to investigational drug-enabling studies for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that causes nerves and muscles to stop working, and Friedreich’s ataxia, which damages nerves.
RaNa secured $20.7m in a 2012 series A round co-led by SR One, Monsanto and Atlas Venture that included Partners Innovation Fund. Atlas also provided $2.7m in seed funding in 2011 as a co-founder of RaNa.
Joshua Resnick, president of MRL, is joining RaNa’s board of directors in conjunction with the round.