ADARx Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company in the clinical stage that specialises in developing advanced RNA therapeutics, has announced the successful conclusion of an oversubscribed Series C financing round, raising a total of $200m.
Leading the financing effort were Bain Capital Life Sciences and TCGX, in a joint effort. Additionally, new investors such as Blackrock, Commodore Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Invus, Marshall Wace, Redmile Group, T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, and Vivo Capital participated in this funding round. ADARx’s existing investors, including Ascenta Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, OrbiMed, and SR One Capital Management, also contributed to the investment.
The capital garnered from the Series C financing will be channelled towards further advancement of ADARx’s ongoing clinical programmes, notably ADX-324 and ADX-038. ADX-324 introduces an innovative approach to address hereditary angioedema, a rare genetic disorder characterised by rapid, painful, and potentially life-threatening swelling episodes. Simultaneously, ADX-038 is under development as a potential treatment for multiple complement-mediated diseases.
In addition, the funding will play a crucial role in supporting the progression of a pipeline consisting of cutting-edge mRNA silencing or editing candidates, intended for the treatment of a diverse array of medical conditions.
ADARx Pharmaceuticals president and CEO Dr Zhen Li said: “The strong support from our new and existing investors is a testament to the significant progress we have made in advancing next-generation RNA therapeutics for hepatic and extrahepatic targets.
“The early phase 1 clinical data strongly supports the potential of ADX-324 to be the best-in-class treatment for patients suffering from hereditary angioedema. Moreover, the clinical data validate our proprietary targeted delivery PLR platform and our broad SPE technology.
“With this financing, we are well-positioned to achieve our clinical milestones for multiple clinical programs and to build a leading company in RNA therapeutics.”
Bain Capital Life Sciences partner Ricky Sun said: “ADARx has developed a unique siRNA platform that we believe has the potential to generate differentiated clinical data from several programs over the near and long term.
“We share the company’s commitment to targeting diseases across therapeutic areas where there is a significant unmet medical need and look forward to supporting the advancement of their platform technology and growing drug development pipeline, with the ultimate goal of bringing important new treatments to patients.”
TCGX managing partner Dr Chen Yu said: “We are impressed by the progress that ADARx has made in developing RNA therapeutics and their recent clinical data. We believe that their technology and platform have the potential to transform the treatment of a wide range of diseases. We are excited to partner with the ADARx team to help bring their medicines to patients.”
As part of the financing agreement, Dr Sun and Dr Yu will assume positions on ADARx’s Board of Directors.
