ExoRNA Bio Secures Tens of Millions in Angel Funding to Advance Its Proprietary Third-Generation RNAi Delivery Platform for Next-Gen Nucleic Acid Therapeutics

At the beginning of the new year, ExoRNA Bio, a company focused on the R&D of small RNA nucleic acid drugs, announced the completion of its angel round of financing. The first phase of financing amounted to tens of millions of yuan, led by the well-known investment institution CDH Investments VGC Fund, with a follow-up investment from a well-known CRO in the industry.

According to Professor Zhang Chenyu, the founder of ExoRNA Bio, this round of financing will first be used for the research and development and production of nucleic acid drugs for neurological diseases, as well as nucleic acid drugs against superbugs and antiviral infections. In the future, ExoRNA Bio will leverage Professor Zhang Chenyu's self-developed third-generation RNAi drug in vivo delivery platform to bring innovative therapeutic solutions to unmet clinical needs.

Professor Chenyu Zhang, founder of ExoRNA and Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Nanjing University

Public information shows that Professor Chenyu Zhang, currently a professor at Nanjing University and Dean of the School of Life Sciences, has over two decades of experience in the RNA field along with a series of significant scientific research achievements. These include groundbreaking discoveries and technical results represented by RNAi/siRNA, "circulating miRNA biomarkers," "secreted miRNA communication systems," "cross-kingdom regulation by exogenous plant miRNAs," and "third-generation RNAi therapeutic technology using exosome delivery." This body of work has established an academic system known as the "Nanjing School" of "extracellular RNA-mediated inter-species co-evolution and adaptation," as described by the prestigious international journal Nature. He is acclaimed as the "world's leading expert in extracellular RNA research."

For many years, Professor Zhang Chenyu has been committed to transforming original basic research findings into internationally leading clinical applications. Currently, Professor Zhang holds more than a hundred international and domestic invention patents, some of which have already been applied. The world's first pancreatic cancer diagnostic kit based on circulating miRNA, developed by him, was approved for marketing by the China Food and Drug Administration (later renamed the National Medical Products Administration) in November 2015, with an early-stage cancer diagnostic accuracy rate of 87.6%.

ExoRNA Bio was founded with the aim of further transforming Professor Zhang Chenyu's past research achievements into more products that can be applied in actual treatments, benefiting more patients.

Previously, Professor Zhang Chenyu utilized the human body's own organs and tissues as bioreactors to produce pharmaceutical RNAi in vivo. These RNAi molecules are self-assembled into extracellular vesicles of the "bioreactor," serving as an RNAi delivery system. The naturally secreted vesicles from endogenous cells can not only protect small RNAs during transport across cellular and biological barriers but also exhibit excellent biocompatibility. Based on this, the third-generation RNAi drug delivery platform invented by Professor Zhang Chenyu has overcome the "bottleneck" of the lack of effective in vivo delivery systems for nucleic acid drugs.

According to reports, the third-generation RNAi therapeutic approach, which is based on the corresponding delivery platform, completely avoids issues such as high production costs and quality control difficulties of RNAi carriers in vitro, as well as the inability to deliver outside the liver, instability, susceptibility to degradation, and high demand in vivo. It can exert a powerful effect even at extremely low RNAi concentrations.

"We can make some modifications to the synthetic biology gene components so that exosomes that originally could not pass through the blood-brain barrier can do so, in order to treat central nervous system diseases," said Professor Zhang Chenyu. In other words, the third-generation RNAi therapy is expected to have excellent efficacy for certain neuro-specific diseases.

Dr. Meng Xia, who has over 20 years of experience in R&D, marketing, business, and management in biotechnology companies, will primarily be responsible for the company's operations and management. As a co-founder, she stated that Professor Zhang Chenyu’s mastery of the third-generation RNAi drug in vivo delivery technology offers limitless possibilities for nucleic acid drug development, providing feasible therapeutic solutions for unmet clinical needs. ExoRNA Bio will promote the implementation of related innovative drugs through professional and standardized R&D testing processes.

"In the future, ExoRNA Bio will focus on the development of delivery platforms and related drugs, truly implementing so-called precision treatment." According to Professor Chenyu Zhang, in the next phase, ExoRNA Bio will leverage Professor Chenyu Zhang's independently developed third-generation exosome delivery RNAi therapeutic technology to achieve a novel 'launch vehicle + delivery satellite' combination, developing a series of pipelines based on preliminary experimental validation.

Dr. Liu Dan, Senior Partner of CDH VGC (Venture & Growth Capital), the lead investor in this round of financing, also expressed optimism about the development potential of ExoRNA Bio. He stated that Professor Zhang Chenyu, as an academic leader, has a team with long-term accumulation in the field of nucleic acids, and their understanding and research capabilities in nucleic acid biology have reached an internationally leading level. Currently, nucleic acid biology has reached an inflection point for industry growth. With years of accumulated expertise from Professor Zhang Chenyu, ExoRNA Bio already possesses small RNA nucleic acid drugs validated through human clinical trials, presenting vast market potential.

"The biggest issue currently existing in the clinical application of nucleic acid drugs lies in the lack of an effective in vivo delivery system. However, Professor Zhang Chenyu has broken through this bottleneck in his research by inventing the third-generation RNAi drug in vivo delivery platform, which not only improves the original single-targeting problem but can also cross the blood-brain barrier, overcoming the treatment of CNS neurological diseases. Against the backdrop of the rapid development of nucleic acid drugs, this invention holds tremendous advantages. ExoRNA Bio possesses leading dual platforms of 'nucleic acid drugs + delivery,'" Liu Dan added.

CDH Investments, established in 2002, is one of the most influential alternative asset management institutions in China, currently managing over 170 billion RMB in assets. CDH VGC, a fund under CDH Investments, focuses on innovative and growth-stage investments, primarily covering four major investment areas: healthcare, ToC consumption, ToB enterprise services, and technological innovation. The core philosophy of CDH Investments is to create long-term value by walking alongside strivers. Over the past decade, CDH has been accompanying numerous outstanding companies in fields such as biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical services, and internet healthcare. CDH firmly believes that allocating resources to excellent healthcare enterprises will undoubtedly drive progress within the industry and society.