Bay Area-based startup Rani Therapeutics – which is creating a way to deliver biologic drugs orally – just welcomed another high profile strategic investor: AstraZeneca. This brings the company’s total funding up to $70 million, Rani said in a statement – and plans to use the funding to expand its team, build out new facilities and scale up its manufacturing.
Rani closed out a Series C round last May; notable investors then included Google Ventures and Novartis. Other investors in this latest round are Virtus Inspire Ventures and Ping An Ventures.
The Hidden Administrative Tasks Draining Small Practices
Small practices play a critical role in healthcare delivery, but they cannot continue to absorb ever-increasing administrative demands without consequences.
The company is developing a means to convert injectable drugs – such as basal insulin, TNF-alpha inhibitors and interleukin antibodies – into oral biologics. It’s been working with Novartis and AstraZeneca/MedImmune for the past year or so.
“We developed Rani Therapeutics with a clear vision – give patients suffering from chronic illnesses a convenient, easy and painless alternative to subcutaneous injections,” CEO Mir Imran said in a statement.