Pharmaceutical Technology

Daily Newsletter

10 August 2023

Daily Newsletter

ADARx secures $200m to advance clinical programmes

The company has a pipeline of RNA therapeutics to treat diseases across a range of areas.

ADARx Pharmaceuticals has concluded an oversubscribed Series C financing, securing $200m for advancing its clinical programmes, including ADX-324 and ADX-038.

Led jointly by TCGX and Bain Capital Life Sciences, the financing round witnessed participation from new investors such as Commodore Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Invus, Marshall Wace, Redmile Group, HBM Healthcare Investments and BlackRock.

It also involved existing investors SR One Capital Management, OrbiMed, Lilly Asia Ventures and Ascenta Capital.

ADX-324 offers a new method to treat hereditary angioedema, a genetic disease characterised by painful, rapid and potentially life-threatening episodes of swelling.

The company is developing ADX-038 to treat multiple complement-mediated diseases.

It will also use the funding to support the development of a pipeline of mRNA silencing or editing candidates to treat several diseases.

ADARx Pharmaceuticals president and CEO Dr Zhen Li stated: “The early Phase I clinical data strongly support the potential of ADX-324 to be the best-in-class treatment for patients suffering from hereditary angioedema.

“Moreover, the clinical data validate our proprietary targeted delivery PLR platform and our broad SPE technology. With this financing, we are well-positioned to achieve our clinical milestones for multiple clinical programmes and to build a leading company in RNA therapeutics.”

Bain Capital Life Sciences partner Dr Ricky Sun and TCGX managing partner Dr Chen Yu will become members of the ADARx board of directors.

The company has a pipeline of RNA therapeutics to treat diseases across a range of therapeutic areas.

Healthcare companies are hesitant to invest in the metaverse

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the healthcare industry to rapid digitalization. Increased use of telehealth, telepresence systems, remote diagnostics, predictive AI, and wearable technology is changing how healthcare is delivered and improving patient outcomes. Emerging technologies such as AR and VR are becoming increasingly routine for professional training, surgical assistance, and treatment of psychological and neurological disorders. In the pharma and medical devices industries, AR, VR, and AI are rapidly accelerating drug discovery and manufacturing and generating supply chain efficiencies. New digital opportunities will look to build upon disruptive technologies. However, affordability is a limiting factor to widespread adoption. Per GlobalData estimates, the metaverse market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 33% between 2023 and 2030. Although metaverse technologies could reinvent healthcare approaches and bring new experiences to healthcare providers and patients, adoption is still at an early stage. There are currently few use cases in the healthcare industry. The metaverse needs to overcome major challenges for healthcare, including regulation and data privacy concerns. Evidence of proven use cases and participation by a critical mass of users are imperative to drive a shift in metaverse investment.