Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Isis Pharmaceuticals have chipped in $20 million to fund the Series A round of Regulus Therapeutics, their RNA spin-off. Regulus, which was created in 2007, also announced that it had completed a legal reorganization from an LLC to a C-Corporation with an eye to attracting future investors.
"This equity financing, when combined with last year's significant upfront payment made by GlaxoSmithKline as part of our partnership, gives Regulus cash that we expect will last at least through 2011. In addition, the reorganization of our capital structure to a C-Corporation sets the basis for a strong, independent company allowing us to more flexibly attract capital and continue forging relationships with the pharmaceutical industry," said Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., CEO of Regulus, a Fierce 15 company. Xanthopoulos went on to tout the developer's work. "Most recently, we demonstrated for the first time ever in vivo therapeutic efficacy by targeting a microRNA, miR-21, in an animal model of human cardiac disease."
MicroRNAs are a class of genetically encoded endogenous RNAs, approximately 20 nucleotides in length, that are believed to regulate the expression of a large number of human genes.
- check out Regulus' release