A company developing RNA-interference drugs against cancers and fibrotic diseases has closed its latest round of financing. Sirnaomics – which is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and has locations in China – said Friday that it had closed the second part of its Series C round. The total value of the Series C financing is $47 million, including a $25 million C1 portion closed in June 2018 and the latest C2 portion, worth $22 million. Hong Kong-based CR-CP Life Sciences Fund – itself a joint venture of China Resources Group and Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group – led the C2 round, while US-based Legend Sky Investment and China-based Rich Yield Capital and Rolling Boulder Investment participated. Yuexiu New Industrial Investment had led the C1 round, with participation from Sangel Biomedical Venture Capital, HuaKong Equity Investment and Qianhai Shenghui Investment. The company plans to use the money to support its clinical and drug-development technology programs. Its most advanced product candidate is STP705, which is in Phase II development for non-melanoma skin cancer and hypertrophic scar reduction, according to its pipeline page. ClinicalTrials.gov lists a Phase I/II study of 24 patients for the latter indication, which is stated to be still recruiting patients at a single site in California despite an estimated January 2018 completion date. For non-melanoma skin cancer, the company said in December that it had received Food and Drug Administration clearance to begin the Phase II study. The company is one of several that has been investigating RNA as a target for the treatment of disease. Another firm in the field is Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Earlier this month, Alnylam and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals formed a $1 billion deal to focused on central nervous system and eye drugs, as well as on two C5-targeting drugs in liver diseases. Alnylam and Regeneron already had an existing partnership around nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Last August, Alnylam became the first company to win approval for an siRNA drug, Onpattro (patisiran), for hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis, or hAATR. Photo: jxfzsy, Getty Images
RNA therapy company Sirnaomics has raised $47m to develop its technology and work on its STP705 product aimed at tackling non-melanoma skin cancer and the reduction of hypertrophic scars. The second part of the firm’s series C round was led by China Resources and Charoen Pokphand joint venture CR-CP Life Sciences Fund, backed by Yuexiu New Industrial Investment, Rich Yield Capital and Rolling Boulder Investment. It added $22m to the $25m raised during the first stage if the round which was led by Legend Sky Investment backed by Sangel Biomedical Venture Capital, HuaKong Equity Investment and Qianhai Shenghui Investment.