Formerly known as Ryne Bio, Kenai Therapeutics emerged on Thursday with backing from several groups and has a cell therapy candidate going after Parkinson’s disease.
Pictured: 3D illustration of stem cells used for cell therapy/iStock, Maksim Tkachenko
San Diego-based Kenai Therapeutics announced its arrival on the biotech scene Thursday with $82 million in Series A financing to fund an investigational asset designed to treat Parkinson’s disease.
According to Kenai, which was formerly known as Ryne Bio, the funding was co-led by Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, The Column Group and Cure Ventures. The round also saw participation from Saisei Venture and Euclidean Capital.
The Series A is meant to help Kenai submit an IND for RNDP-001, an iPSC-derived allogenic dopamine progenitor cell therapy intended to treat idiopathic and inherited forms of Parkinson’s. Funding will also go toward the completion of Phase I trials which will start sometime this year.
Kenai said the asset has shown “robust survival, innervation, and behavioral rescue” in preclinical models.
“We are grateful for the support of a syndicate of leading life science investors and a team of industry veterans, including scientific co-founders Dr. Howard Federoff and Dr. Jeffrey Kordower, who see the promise in Kenai’s approach to treating central nervous system disorders,” Kenai CEO Nick Manusos said in a statement. “Their guidance will be invaluable as we soon advance our lead candidate, RNDP-001, into the clinic to treat Parkinson’s disease.”
In addition to the Parkinson’s candidate, Kenai is pursuing a pipeline of off-the-shelf dopamine neuron replacement cell therapy assets targeting neurological disorders. However, no other specific disease targets were revealed in the announcement. Kenai is using Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics for its manufacturing and development services.
“Kenai’s proprietary platform leverages an emerging approach to treating central nervous system disorders by replacing neurons lost due to neurodegeneration,” Jeff Jonas, chair and board member of Kenai Therapeutics and partner at Cure Ventures, said in a statement. “The potentially curative nature of RNDP-001 for Parkinson’s disease could dramatically alter outcomes for patients with very few treatment options.”
In February 2023, when the company was known as Ryne Bio, it received a $4 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to support the development of RNDP-001.
Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace. You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
