AIRNA, a biotech company pioneering RNA editing therapeutics to restore the health of patients with rare and common diseases, announced the successful closing of an oversubscribed $60 million financing round, which brings the total Series A funding to $90 million.
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The financing was led by Forbion with participation from Ono Venture Investment, Alexandria Venture Investments, and other new investors, as well as AIRNA’s existing syndicate, including ARCH Venture Partners and ND Capital. The proceeds from the Series A financing will be used to advance AIRNA’s lead product candidate into clinical trials and further develop AIRNA’s broad pipeline.
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“This Series A financing brings together a distinctive syndicate of investors to support AIRNA’s vision of transforming lives by realising the therapeutic potential of base editing for the masses,” said Kris Elverum, President and Chief Executive Officer of AIRNA. “We are focused on bringing our first drug candidate to the clinic next year and advancing our platform to unlock targets that are inaccessible by other modalities.”
AIRNA launched with backing from ARCH Venture Partners to create a new class of RNA therapeutics based on seminal research published by academic co-founders Thorsten Stafforst and Jin Billy Li. AIRNA is developing medicines to address a wide array of diseases with high unmet need through its RESTORE+TM platform, which optimises oligonucleotide sequence, chemistry, and delivery for precise, efficient, and safe RNA editing. AIRNA’s first product candidate is a potential best-in-class treatment for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), a genetic condition implicated in severe lung and liver disease.
The company also announced the appointment of Josh Brumm, general partner at Forbion, to its Board of Directors. Mr. Brumm was recently the CEO of Dyne Therapeutics, a Forbion portfolio company developing oligonucleotide-based medicines for patients with muscle diseases.
“AIRNA has a differentiated approach to delivering life-changing outcomes for patients with AATD and other severe diseases,” said Mr. Brumm. “We are excited to support AIRNA’s exceptional management team and collaborate across continents to build a leading genetic medicines company.”
About AIRNA
AIRNA is pioneering the discovery and development of RNA editing therapeutics to transform the lives of patients with rare and common diseases. RNA editing is poised to lead the next generation of RNA therapeutics by targeting diseases not accessible through other approaches with a medicine that can be conveniently re-dosed and manufactured. Our RESTORE+ platform is based on groundbreaking research by academic co-founders Thorsten Stafforst (University of Tübingen) and Jin Billy Li (Stanford University), who were the first to elucidate a therapeutic approach for precise editing of RNA.
AIRNA is advancing its first therapeutic programme, a best-in-class product candidate to treat the inherited genetic disease alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), as well as a pipeline of therapeutic candidates to address multiple diseases with high unmet need. AIRNA has headquarters in Cambridge, MA, with research operations in Tübingen, Germany.
