Sinomics Biotech Secures $120 Million Series B Financing to Expand mRNA Therapeutic Applications Through Proprietary Platform Technologies

Following the 2022 Lunar New Year, the biomedical equity financing market appeared subdued amid multiple disruptive factors. Nevertheless, even in such a market environment, high-quality companies in frontier sectors remained highly sought after by investors.

On March 28, Shenzhen INNORNA Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (“INNORNA”), a company dedicated to the research and development of mRNA therapeutics and delivery vector technologies, officially announced the completion of its $120 million Series B financing round. The round was led by CDH Investments and HHF Huayi Investment/Huaxing Medical Treatment Industry Fund, with participation from E Fund Capital and Blue Ocean Capital. Existing shareholders, including CPE and Fangyuan Capital, continued their support. Following the closing of this round, INNORNA has cumulatively secured over RMB 1 billion in equity financing since its inception.

Public information shows that INNORNA was established in November 2019, and is aA platform company engaged in the development of novel preventive and therapeutic vaccines and drugs, based on mRNA technology and LNP delivery technology.Currently, the company has filed multiple patent applications with significant application value centered around its mRNA and LNP technology platforms, and has established a portfolio of multiple R&D pipelines.

It is reported that, following the previous round of financing, which has secured sufficient funds for the subsequent clinical trials of the company’s existing R&D pipeline,INNORNA will leverage its proprietary technology platform to continuously expand the frontiers of mRNA drug development through its Series B financing, pioneering novel R&D pipelines in previously unexplored territories.

Dr. Liu Dan, Senior Partner at CDH VGC, the lead investor in this Series B financing round, stated that mRNA technology has made significant strides during the pandemic, demonstrating immense potential for applications in vaccines and other areas. “We have also been actively seeking novel LNP delivery platforms capable of matching or even surpassing existing overseas products. China’s biotech innovation is undergoing a transformation, and we are more committed than ever to supporting robustly innovative, platform-oriented companies like INNORNA. We look forward to the company rapidly developing new, independently researched and developed mRNA vaccines and therapeutics based on its next-generation LNP products.”

mRNA, also known as messenger RNA, is a class of single-stranded ribonucleic acid transcribed from one strand of DNA as a template, which carries genetic information and directs protein synthesis. Related nucleic acid drugs deliver modified mRNA molecules into the cytoplasm, where they undergo transcription and expression using endogenous nucleotides to produce the required proteins.

Therefore, in theory, mRNA can express any protein and treat nearly all protein-based diseases, including various cancers, infectious diseases, and certain rare disorders. Meanwhile, as a critical bridge connecting DNA and proteins, developing drugs targeting mRNA holds promise for overcoming the druggability limitations of existing targets, thereby breaking the deadlock of traditional “undruggable” and “non-targetable” challenges.

However, as the potential of nucleic acid drugs is gradually being unlocked, the inherent limitations of mRNA—namely, its inability to enter cells on its own to exert therapeutic effects and its susceptibility to degradation by nucleases—have also become apparent. This has made delivery technologies capable of protecting and encapsulating mRNA for cellular entry a critical component in the research and development of nucleic acid therapeutics.

INNORNA’s $120 million Series B financing round underscores that, within the cutting-edge mRNA sector, companies mastering core delivery technologies are poised to attract significant investor interest.

Dr. Li Linxian, Founder and CEO of INNORNA, stated that the development of nucleic acid therapeutics faces multiple challenges, including the instability of nucleic acid molecules in vivo, potential side effects of delivery systems, and the significant technical difficulties associated with developing these delivery platforms. In particular, due to their large molecular weight and high negative charge, mRNA molecules cannot enter cells on their own to exert therapeutic effects; therefore, they generally need to be encapsulated by positively charged lipids during drug development. Furthermore, the relevant lipids must be ionizable, meaning they can encapsulate and release mRNA under varying pH conditions, thereby enabling stable, effective targeted delivery and release.

To address this issue, INNORNA chose to independently build an LNP technology platform, designing and constructing various ionizable phospholipid analogs. When facing different application scenarios, it analyzes and optimizes the structure and activity data of the synthesized LNPs,Simulate the delivery and therapeutic efficacy of nucleic acid drugs via high-throughput screening to identify best-in-class LNP structures that meet specific requirements.It is reported that,INNORNA has established a library of nearly 5,000 lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for screening LNP vectors suitable for diverse therapeutic applications.

Behind these achievements is INNORNA’s outstanding core R&D team.

Public information indicates that Dr. Li Linxian, Founder and CEO of INNORNA, studied under Professor Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a founding figure in global biomaterials, a leading global scholar in the mRNA field, and a technical founder of Moderna. In 2017, Dr. Li was named to the MIT Technology Review’s “35 Innovators Under 35” in China for developing next-generation lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for mRNA delivery. In 2019, Dr. Li led his R&D team to synthesize large libraries of LNPs via parallel synthesis in a short period. By combining this with high-throughput screening techniques, they rapidly identified suitable LNPs as carriers for mRNA vaccines. The related findings were published as a paper in Nature Biotechnology, with Dr. Li serving as the sole designer of the liposomal chemical structures described in the publication.

Dr. Li Linxian, Founder and CEO of INNORNA (Image source: INNORNA)

In fact, it was this paper published in a top-tier global journal that introduced Dr. Li Linxian to Zhang Junjie, Founding Partner of Huayi Capital, which participated deeply in INNORNA’s Series B financing round. According to Mr. Zhang, both the depth of the article and the Chinese heritage of its author left a profound impression on him. “We reached out to Dr. Li at that time and engaged him as our industry advisor. Subsequently, the outstanding data generated by the LNPs synthesized by INNORNA in trials also astonished us.”

Dr. Li Linxian’s contributions to the development of LNP technology extend even further. A class of lipid structures he designed and discovered in the early stages constitutes the core structural motifs of the two ionizable cationic lipids used in the FDA-approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Subsequently, Acuitas and Moderna drew upon Alnylam’s biodegradable design principles to ultimately develop the two lipid types, ALC-0315 and SM-102.

“INNORNA has constructed a diverse novel library of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), achieving a series of remarkable breakthroughs in patent innovation, efficacy and safety, and multi-organ targeted delivery, which have been validated in both small and large animal models.” Dr. Liu Dan also expressed high recognition of INNORNA’s LNP technology.

In addition to the LNP technology platform that addresses the challenges of nucleic acid drug delivery, INNORNA’s independently designed and developed mRNA synthesis technology platform has also provided significant support to the company’s new drug R&D.

To address the need for efficient mRNA expression, INNORNA has leveraged its research expertise to enhance mRNA stability and prolong protein expression duration through design-stage optimizations, while improving protein yield via codon optimization in the coding region. Meanwhile, with the support of nucleoside modifications and highly efficient capping technologies, synergistic interactions between the untranslated regions (UTRs) and the coding region further bolster mRNA stability and elevate expression efficiency.

Based on this,INNORNA’s mRNA products have achieved world-leading standards in overall technology and expression efficiency, as validated in large animal studies.

According to Li Linxian, the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines and nucleic acid drugs, as well as their minimal side effects, are closely tied to the composition of their lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and mRNA. AndHaving mastered the two core technologies of LNP and mRNA synthesis, INNORNA is capable of developing mRNA vaccines and nucleic acid therapeutics that demand more sophisticated delivery technologies, offer superior market prospects, and demonstrate enhanced safety and efficacy.

“What we value is not any specific product developed by INNORNA, but rather its potential as a platform company to continuously generate various mRNA vaccines and nucleic acid-based therapeutics.” In Zhang Junjie’s view, teams worldwide that truly master key technologies such as LNP delivery and mRNA synthesis are exceedingly rare. The R&D team at INNORNA, including Dr. Li Linxian, possesses extensive development experience and leading foundational technologies, which constitute the technological foundation for the company’s growth.

Currently, INNORNA has built multiple R&D pipelines around its mRNA and LNP technology platforms, with some of these pipelinesPreclinical trials are nearing completion.The company also maintains an open attitude, hoping to join hands with enterprises deeply engaged in this field to meet unmet clinical needs.

To support the advancement of its relevant R&D pipeline, INNORNA has established an R&D and CMC team of nearly 200 members, including several senior executives with years of experience at major international pharmaceutical companies such as GSK, Pfizer, and BMS. The company also operates a 4,500-square-meter R&D laboratory and a 2,500-square-meter pilot-scale production workshop.

“Future,INNORNA aims to leverage its two proprietary technology platforms—LNP and mRNA synthesis—to truly establish itself as a platform-based company dedicated to the R&D of novel mRNA therapeutics.“Leveraging its platform, the company will not limit itself to the development of a single class of nucleic acid drugs; instead, it will continuously explore the boundaries of mRNA technology applications to deliver best-in-class and first-in-class innovative therapeutics for clinical treatment,” said Li Linxian.