Rona Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company engaged in nucleic acid drug research and development, has closed a $35m Series A+ financing round.
The funding was led by LongRiver Investments with participation from Zhaode Investment, Zhongqi Capital, BioTrack Capital, and Lilly Asia Ventures.
Based in China, Rona Therapeutics specialises in treatments for metabolic diseases and central nervous system (CNS) degenerative diseases. The company is advancing a pipeline of siRNA programmes.
Its first asset, RN0191, a PCSK9 siRNA programme, has completed Phase 1 clinical studies in Australia and China and is ready for Phase 2 development for hypercholesterolemia.
The second programme, RN0361, is set to enter clinical trials in Q2 2024 for hypertriglyceridemia. Additionally, the company is advancing programmes at the investigational new drug (IND)-enabling stage for kidney disease, obesity, and cardiometabolic diseases.
LongRiver Investments stated: “Rona Therapeutics has successfully brought two best-in-class siRNA metabolic programmes into global development and demonstrated differentiated clinical data and platform value.
“We are impressed by the progress Rona has made in developing innovative siRNA pipeline and expanding into extrahepatic delivery in CNS and beyond. We look forward to partnering with Rona team to unlock potential of RNA medicine as transformative therapies to patients globally.”
Rona Therapeutics said that the proceeds from the financing will be used to progress its metabolic siRNA pipeline programmes into global development and to expand the extra-hepatic delivery platform for CNS and other applications.
The Chinese pharma firm is developing siRNA drugs with a focus on liver-targeted treatments for cardiovascular diseases, NASH, obesity, and kidney diseases.
Rona Therapeutics is also working on extra-hepatic nucleic acid delivery for CNS degenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease, using a proprietary delivery platform.
Rona Therapeutics CEO and founder Stella SHI said: “We are thrilled to welcome LongRiver Investments and our other new investors as we progress more best-in-class and first-in-class siRNA programmes into global development and catalysing potential business development opportunities.
“Rona Therapeutics remains committed to pushing boundaries of RNA medicine in metabolic, obesity, renal and neuro degenerative diseases with Rona’s proprietary RNA platform.”
