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news.Sirnaomics, a biopharmaceutical company in discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics, has closed Series B financing of $10m.
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This follows on previous round of venture capital investment and non-diluted grant funding up to a total amount of US$25 million. This round of financing was led by Hong Kong based venture capital firm, Value Measured Investment Limited.
The proceeds will be used to fund clinical development of its first-in-class anti-fibrosis programs and the company expects to enter Phase I clinical trial with its lead product candidate, STP705, early second half of 2016.
"This round of financing demonstrates the tremendous potential in the RNAi therapeutics as a targeted precision medicine to treat human diseases with high unmet need. Sirnaomics intends to build on the recent success demonstrated by other companies in the sector by leveraging our tremendous knowledge and experience in RNAi and delivery technologies. We are very excited to bring our lead product candidate, STP705, to the clinic this year for the treatment of Hypertrophic Scar," said the Founder and CEO of the company, Dr. Patrick Y. Lu. "As a first-in-class innovative siRNA therapeutics, the clinical studies of this leading compound will provide us confirmation on both a clinical viable formulation and a novel therapeutic approach."
"STP705 has demonstrated very robust results in pre-clinical animal efficacy studies and a very good safety profile. Based on the unique nature of RNAi technology, we have been able to target homologous RNA sequences across multiple species. The sequences and STP705 formulation that demonstrated very good safety and efficacy results in animal studies are expected to achieve similar compelling results in the human Hypertrophic Scar reduction studies," said Dr. Michael Molyneaux, Chief Medical Officer of the company.
"We expect to file IND to US FDA in early third quarter of 2016 and to initiate the phase 1 clinical study soon after the filing."
"The PNP (polypeptide Nanoparticle) siRNA formulation of our leading drug candidate, STP705, had been extensively validated and shown to be very versatile with a simple straight forward manufacturing process," said Dr. Marc Lemaitre, Sirnaomics’ Chief Operation Officer.
"This nanoparticle formulation will allow for considerable optionality in treating and targeting many different types of human disease."
About Fibrotic Diseases
Fibrotic disease encompass a wide array of clinical disease conditions from the systemic fibrotic diseases to organ-specific disorders including skin hypertrophic scar, liver, lung, kidney, and cardiac fibrosis. Although their causative mechanisms are quite diverse, these diseases share the common feature of prolong inflammation and uncontrolled accumulation of fibrous tissue macromolecules in affected organs leading to their dysfunction and ultimate failure.
About "STP705"
Sirnaomics’ STP705 is an anti-fibrosis siRNA (small interfering RNA) therapeutic candidate, taking advantage of a dual-targeted inhibitory property and PNP-enhanced delivery to directly diminish the tissue fibrotic activity in various animal models, from skin hypertrophic scar to liver and lung fibrosis. A fully-developed manufacturing process and a well-established pre-clinical safety profile ensure STP705 for human clinical studies with a broad application potential.