Rona Therapeutics has announced the closing of a $35 million series A+ round led by LongRiver Investments. Other investors including Zhaode Investment, BioTrack Capital, Zhongqi Capital and Lilly Asia Ventures also participated in the round.
Founded in 2021, Rona Therapeutics has raised about $70 million to date to support nucleic acid drug research and development. The company specializes in the development of first-in-class and best-in-class siRNA drugs for metabolic diseases, as well as degenerative diseases affecting the central nervous system (CNS).
The funds will be used to progress Rona’s two lead programs, RN0191 and RN0361. The most advanced, RN0191, is a best-in-class therapeutic targeting the PCSK9 protein, which is involved in the metabolism of cholesterol. The drug candidate has completed phase 1 trials in Australia and China and is now ready to enter phase 2 clinical development as a treatment for hypercholesterolemia, a potentially fatal condition that causes cardiovascular disease.
Earlier this year, RN0361 became the second of Rona’s programs to enter the clinical stage as a treatment for hypertriglyceridemia. Both lead programs are part of the company’s liver targeting platform, named GAIA, which is designed to target a wide range of conditions including kidney disease, obesity and cardiometabolic diseases.
Rona Therapeutics is also developing siRNA therapeutics that target the CNS to treat a range of diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease, which are difficult to treat with traditional drug modalities. These candidates are still in the investigational new drug (IND) enabling stage, where the company has shown preclinical proof-of-concept in primates.
A key differentiator of Rona’s technology platforms is that they have the ability to generate siRNA drugs with improved tolerability and strong potency while unlocking longer duration, potentially enabling dosing patients every six months or even longer periods of time.
“Rona Therapeutics has successfully brought two best-in-class siRNA metabolic programs into global development and demonstrated differentiated clinical data and platform value,” stated a representative from LongRiver Investments. “We are impressed by the progress Rona has made in developing [an] innovative siRNA pipeline and expanding into extra hepatic delivery in CNS and beyond. We look forward to partnering with [the] Rona team to unlock [the] potential of RNA medicine as transformative therapies to patients globally.”
