An RNAi delivery startup that’s been keeping a low profile has emerged with the announcement of a completed seed funding round and acceptance to Janssen Labs.
MedCity News learned in April that Arcturus Therapeutics was raising a $1.3 million round. The company now says it’s completed the round, which it will use to support the purchase of capital equipment and further development of intellectual property of RNAi delivery technologies, along with RNAi target selection, design and in-vitro proof of concept studies.
President and CEO Joseph Payne said the company’s flagship product would target a rare liver disease. That’s no surprise — co-founders Pad Chivukula and Payne ushered an RNAi nanoparticle for liver fibrosis into the clinic at Nitto Denko before leaving that company to pursue Arcturus.
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“After we finalize licensing agreements and achieve in-vivo proof-of-concept with our IP, then we will be armed with the tools and data necessary to raise substantial money to take us forward to the clinic,” Payne said.
The technique of RNA interference uses small snippets of RNA to silence a cell’s expression of genes that viruses and tumors need to survive. One especially problematic step for researchers and pharmaceutical companies, though, has been delivering those snippets to necessary cells in the body.
Just a few years ago, Arcturus’ focus on RNAi technology might not have made so much sense. In the mid- to late-2000s, there was a boom in RNA interference investing, but researchers struggled with getting proof-of-concept and advancing new discoveries into the clinic, Payne explained. “After the boom, there was almost a complete collapse,” he said, with the exception of Nitto Denko, Alnylam and a few others that were able to put together drug products that advanced to the clinic.
That triggered a spark in the investment community in 2012. “As 2013 proceeds, I think we’re going to capture that value again in RNAi,” Payne said.
“In the last couple years, this technology has been very clinically de-risked,” chief operating officer Chivukula added. “A lot of early pioneers that survived are moving toward late-stage clinical trials.”
Global Industry Analysts estimates that the market for RNAi technologies, with leaders like Alnylam, Cerulean Pharma and Silence Therapeutics, will reach $4 billion by 2017.
Arcturus is one of 18 life sciences companies located at Janssen Labs, an innovation center that provides startups access to wet labs and research and administrative equipment without taking any equity.
[Photo credit : DolceraWiki]
