SonoThera Raises $125M in Series B Funding Led by Vida Ventures

The round also saw participation from ARK Invest, CureDuchenne Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, SymBiosis, UCB Ventures SA, Vivo Capital, and existing investors ARCH Venture Partners and Alexandria Venture Investments.

Also investing are Duquesne Family Office, Illumina Ventures, Johnson & Johnson, through its corporate venture capital organization, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Medical Excellence Capital, RA Capital, and Vertex Ventures HC.

As part of the financing, Rajul Jain, Managing Director at Vida Ventures, and Rakhshita Dhar, Vice President and Head of Healthcare Venture Investments at Leaps by Bayer, have joined SonoThera's Board of Directors.

The company plans to use the funding to advance it's lead programs for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease into clinical trials, while also expanding its pipeline of targeted and repeatable genetic medicines.

The oversubscribed funding round follows strong preclinical results that demonstrated successful targeted delivery to multiple tissues as well as the delivery of both large DNA, and RNA therapies. These achievements highlight growing investor confidence in SonoTheras technology platform and development pipeline.

SonoThera's platform combines two core technologies: RIPPLE™, its proprietary ultrasound based delivery system, and PORE™, a payload engineering platform that supports DNA, and RNA therapies, gene editing, and gene silencing applications. Together, these technologies enable the targeted delivery of genetic medicines to specific tissues.

Using this platform, the company is developing genetic therapies that can be administered multiple times and are designed to overcome key limitations of traditional gene therapies. These include challenges related to delivery, payload size, immune responses, safety concerns, and the inability to redose patients when needed.

The company has demonstrated successful targeted delivery and gene expression in multiple tissues, including skeletal muscle, heart, liver, kidney, fat tissue, and the brain. Preclinical studies have also shown the ability to deliver large genetic payloads, including full-length dystrophin for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), as well as RNA-based therapies for gene silencing.

“We are grateful to have the support of this exceptional group of new and existing investors who share our vision of expanding the potential of genetic medicines,” said Kenneth Greenberg, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SonoThera. “Despite remarkable scientific progress, many diseases remain beyond the reach of today’s genetic medicines. We founded SonoThera to take a fundamentally different approach, with a platform designed to broaden the therapeutic possibilities of the field. We believe our technology has the potential to expand the range of diseases addressable by genetic medicines while enabling more precise, durable, safer, and repeatable therapies for patients.”

“We at Vida have a long history of investing in and developing genetic medicines, some of which are now used to treat patients across the globe. We believe SonoThera, with its RIPPLE™ delivery and PORE™ payload engineering technologies, has the potential to unlock opportunities in diseases with significant unmet need that have been previously inaccessible to other genetic medicine approaches,” said Rajul Jain, M.D., Managing Director at Vida Ventures. “We have been deeply impressed by SonoThera’s scientific rigor, pace of execution, and vision, and we are excited to support the company as it advances its first programs into the clinic.”

Read More:F2 Raises $14M in Seed Funding Led by HighlandX

“SonoThera has made impressive progress since its founding and continues to demonstrate the potential of its approach to genetic medicine,” said Steven Gillis, Ph.D., Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners. “The team has built a strong foundation, generated compelling preclinical data, and assembled an outstanding group of investors and partners. We are excited to continue supporting the company as it advances toward the clinic.”

"At CureDuchenne, we are committed to supporting innovative approaches that have the potential to transform the lives of individuals living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy," said Debra Miller, Founder, and CEO of CureDuchenne. SonoTheras differentiated nonviral platform has the potential to address important challenges in gene delivery and bring treatments to families who have been left waiting. We are proud to support the companys next phase of growth and clinical development."

About SonoThera

Founded by Kenneth Greenberg, SonoThera is a biotechnology company developing a nonviral genetic medicine platform that uses ultrasound technology to deliver targeted and repeatable genetic therapies. By combining its proprietary RIPPLE™ ultrasound delivery system with its PORE™ payload engineering platform, the company is advancing a range of genetic medicine approaches, including DNA and RNA therapies, gene editing and gene silencing treatments.

Read More:Jedify Raises $24M in Series A Funding Led by Norwest