DTx Pharma Raises $100 Million to Advance its Platform and Pipeline of RNA Therapeutics

Rare Daily Staff

DTx Pharma completed a $100 million series B financing to advance its RNA-based therapeutics to treat the genetic drivers of disease.

RA Capital Management led the financing with participation from new investors Access Biotechnology, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Cormorant Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, and Logos Capital.  Existing investors also participated in this financing, including Friedman Bioventure Fund, Eli Lilly, Hong Kong-based Viva BioInnovator, and ExSight Ventures.

“The DTx Pharma team has uncovered new ways to leverage fatty acids to overcome some of the challenges that have greatly limited RNA therapeutics as a class,” said Arthur Suckow, CEO of DTx Pharma. “These funds will allow us to utilize our FALCON fatty acid motifs to advance assets into clinical development across several therapeutic areas over the next few years.”

Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance DTx’s pipeline utilizing its novel FALCON (Fatty Acid Ligand Conjugated OligoNucleotide) platform technology. The proprietary delivery technology platform utilizes fatty acids as targeting ligands to enable the delivery of oligonucleotide therapies to tissues and cell types throughout the body. In preclinical studies, DTx has demonstrated cellular uptake and broad activity of oligonucleotides in the retina, muscle, heart, neurons, T cells, and other specialized cell types.

DTx’s pipeline includes lead programs across ocular, neuromuscular, and CNS diseases, with its most advanced program targeting retinosis pigmentosa, a group of rare, genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and loss of cells in the retina—the light sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eye. Common symptoms include difficulty seeing at night and a loss of side (peripheral) vision.

DTx will also continue to deploy its technology to leverage fatty acids as targeting ligands to both enable cellular uptake and promote biodistribution of RNA therapeutics to break open new therapeutic areas for this class.

In connection with this financing, Matthew Hammond, principal at RA Capital Management, and Dan Becker, partner at Access Biotechnology, will join DTx Pharma’s board of directors.

Arthur Suckow, CEO of DTx Pharma