Replicate is relaunching—and here is everything you need to know about the start-up.
With the growing popularity of using RNA to combat diseases and viruses in recent times, Replicate has decided to relaunch. Using $40 million from ATP, Replicate will be taking many self-replicating RNA programs into development stages.
This venture will shape the future of medicine globally. Using self-replicating RNA to fight autoimmune and inflammatory diseases is an excellent innovation. Companies like Moderna and Pfizer show us how RNA can help fight the coronavirus. Thus, it is only sensible to use this technology in other fields.
Replicate is trying to expand the use of RNA in various areas of disease treatments. This bioscience company aims to prevent drug resistance in cancer and use RNA in ways never seen before.
What Is Replicate?
Replicate Bioscience is a San Diego-based company revolutionizing immunotherapy and cancer treatment by using self-replicating RNA (srRNA). Andy Geall and Nathaniel Wang, the company’s co-founders, previously worked together to develop vaccines using RNA for cancer therapy and pandemic responses. They led these projects a long time before COVID-19.
Drug resistance in cancer is a life-threatening issue, and Replicate Bioscience is taking massive steps to combat it using self-replicating RNA. The company aims to solve the problems patients seeking immunotherapy face by using the latest discoveries in the medical field.
Replicate Bioscience is also working toward developing injections to help the sustained therapeutic protein expression. These injections will also be srRNA-based and will treat conditions such as inflammatory diseases and more.
Considered the next big thing, self-replicating RNA is being used more frequently to develop therapies and vaccines, and more and more research is conducted on how to take srRNA programs into clinical development.
Replicate develops vectors that are customized according to the srRNA by using principles of molecular designs. The self-replicating RNAs can replicate themselves after they enter a cell. The RNAs then instruct cells to produce specific proteins to help the body’s immune system fight diseases and drug resistance.
This process of the development of srRNA is an inventive step and is groundbreaking for the medicine world. Other companies have also started using it to develop new treatments for diseases. However, Replicate is considered the pioneer of this industry.
Replicate Relaunch
The life sciences venture firm ATP has decided to fund Replicate to develop self-replicating RNA in medical treatments for autoimmune disorders and various types of cancer.
The srRNA technology is set to prevent cancers from mutating and becoming drug-resistant, tackling one of the biggest life-threatening problems cancer patients face. Funding from ATP will help Replicate the first phase of trials and start clinical development.
What sets Replicate apart from other RNA technologies is the dose is manageable. Other RNA-based treatments use a high amount, which is not possible to administer to all patients. Self-replicating RNAs already reduce the quantity required compared to other RNA treatments, and Replicate is working to bring the dose down a millionfold.
As the use of RNA increases to provide solutions for the medical field, Replicate is not the only biotech using it to develop new treatments. I-Mab, a biotech based in U.S. and China, has recently signed a deal with Immorna to develop cancer treatments using antibodies. The biotech will use self-replicating RNAs for the treatment.
Another biotech that has entered the srRNA space is Arcturus Therapeutics. The company is in the third phase of their study for a vaccine based on mRNA. The Arcturus Therapeutics vaccine uses self-replicating RNAs and a delivery system based on nucleic acid.
Final Takeaway
Self-replicating RNA (srRNA) can enter a cell and start producing copies of itself to help the immune system. It takes less amount of srRNA compared to every other type of RNA used for treatments.
Replicate Bioscience is a San Diego-based biotech company pioneering self-replicating RNA to boost immunotherapy and prevent drug resistance in cancer. It recently received $40 million as funding from ATP for clinical development of the use of srRNA for various medical treatments.
Other biotech companies like Arcturus Therapeutics and I-Mab are also developing vaccines and treatments that use self-replicating RNA. srRNA will soon revolutionize the field of medicine, and the results will be highly beneficial for immune disorders and cancer patients.
