RNAimmune, Inc., a Gaithersburg, MD-based biopharmaceutical company specializing in discovery and development of mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines, raised $10m in seed funding.

Smooth River and Hong Kong Hongrun led the investment, with participation from Shanghai Walga Biotechnology, High Forest Investment and Terra Magnum Sigma. RNAimmune is a spin-off entity from Sirnaomics, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics against cancer and fibrotic diseases, who increased its investment in the company.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its research and development into mRNA vaccine and drug discovery focused on infectious disease, cancer, and rare diseases.

Since its founding in early 2020, RNAimmune has built up its mRNA vaccine and drug discovery and development platform to tackle high unmet medical needs in infectious diseases, cancer and rare diseases. The company is now in the IND enabling stage for its lead candidate COVID-19 mRNA vaccine and plans to file an IND with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before the end of 2021. It is also advancing its RAS tumor vaccine program in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles. Headquartered in Maryland, United States, RNAimmune has set up its China R&D center in Guangzhou Bio-Island. Last August, the company completed a seed financing round of $2.35m.

RNAimmune is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in discovery and development of messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines. The company leverages mRNA as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce its own proteins capable of fighting a wide range of diseases. RNAimmune is a spin-off venture from Sirnaomics, Inc. and has received a global exclusive right to the proprietary Polypeptide Lipid Nanoparticle (PLNP) technology for mRNA delivery from Sirnaomics. The company has also developed a proprietary A.I. algorithm (ALEPVA) for antigen prediction and vaccine design. By integrating multiple established platform technologies, RNAimmune is aiming to develop a comprehensive mRNA drug discovery and development platform, from which they will enrich its therapeutic and vaccine product pipeline addressing unmet needs in treatments of viral infections, cancer and rare diseases.