Bringing in an additional $50 million in a Series B extension, ReCode Therapeutics’ total haul for the funding round totaled $260 million, which it will use to further its experimental mRNA therapies.
Pictured: Illustration of an mRNA molecule/iStock, Artur Plawgo
ReCode Therapeutics on Tuesday closed an extension round to its Series B financing, bringing in an additional $50 million for a total haul this funding round of $260 million.
The California company will use its Series B raise to further advance its clinical development programs for primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and cystic fibrosis (CF). The money will also help ReCode boost its Selective Organ Targeting (SORT) lipid nanoparticle (LNP) pipeline with mRA and gene correction therapies for musculoskeletal, central nervous system, lung and liver indications.
ReCode won new supporters in its Series B extension, including Solasta Ventures and Bioluminescence Ventures (BLV). As part of the funding round, BLV’s founding and managing partner Kouki Harasaki will join ReCode’s board of directors.
In a statement, Harasaki called ReCode’s technology “cutting-edge” and “well-aligned” with BLV’s financing thrust.
“At BLV, we focus on funding next-generation therapeutics platforms and developing first- and best-in-class programs,” Harasaki said.
ReCode’s SORT LNP platform allows for the targeted delivery of the encapsulated mRNA modalities and other corrective gene therapies, according to the company’s website. Unlike first-generation LNPs, which are taken in by the liver following administration, SORT LNP’s are specifically engineered with a biochemically unique fifth lipid that directs the nanoparticles to their specific target organs.
In a May 2023 interview with BioSpace, Chief Scientific Officer and President David Lockhart said the approach was the first of its kind—and can even provide ReCode’s LNPs the flexibility to bypass the liver if needed. While SORT LNP was initially designed for intravenous administration, ReCode has found a way to make its mRNA therapies inhalable.
“Nobody has done this successfully–created an mRNA therapy wrapped up in an LNP that is delivered into the airway and capable of directly reaching the cells involved in disease,” Lockhart said. “It’s new territory.”
Currently, ReCode is harnessing its technology to target lung diseases such as PCD and CF. Its most mature candidate is an inhalable mRNA therapeutic that targets the DNAI1 gene, which in PCD is mutated and produces a faulty protein, leading to impaired ciliary movement.
In March 2023, the company announced that it had dosed its first batch of healthy volunteers in the Phase I study of the candidate. ReCode expects to file an Investigational New Drug application during the second half of this year.
ReCode is also harnessing its SORT LNP platform against CF, with investigational mRNA and gene correction therapies targeting the CFTR gene. An experimental inhaled treatment is in pre-clinical assessments, while an intravenous candidate is still in the discovery phase.
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.
