Aima Biotech completed tens of millions of angel + round financing
Recently, ExoRNA Bio, developed by Professor Zhang Chenyu, Dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Biomedical
Technology of Nanjing University, focusing on the world's leading third-generation in vivo self-assembled exosome-delivered
RNA nucleic acid drug technology, announced the completion of tens of millions of angel+ round financing. This round of
financing was led by the well-known institution Yuexiu Industrial Fund, followed by Jingxin Pharmaceutical, Dingxin Capital,
Nanjing University Biomedical Industry Alumni Association, the original shareholder CDH Investment continued to follow the
investment and increase its position, and Puwan Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round. This round of
financing will be mainly used to accelerate the industrial transformation of the company's technology platform, and at the same
time promote the IND application of Aima Bio's first self-developed pipeline for Huntington's disease this year.
Founded in early 2022, ExoRNA Bio is committed to developing more products that can benefit more patients with unmet clinical
needs in actual treatment, especially therapeutic drugs for central nervous system diseases, and build a platform RNA innovative
drug company.
According to market intelligence firms EvalutePharma and BCG, the RNA nucleic acid therapeutics market size will reach $8.6 billion
in 2024, with a CAGR of about 35% from 2018 to 2024. Nucleic acid drugs are also expected to become the third largest type of drugs
after small molecule drugs and antibody drugs. However, at present, the conversion and application of nucleic acid drugs is seriously
limited by their delivery in vivo, and it is difficult to effectively reach the action site. It can be said that the delivery system is the guarantee
that nucleic acid drugs can be targeted to exert stable efficacy, and it has also become the biggest obstacle affecting their druggability.
In this regard, Professor Zhang Chenyu, the founder of Aima Biotechnology, cleverly uses the body's own organ tissues as bioreactors to "process" the active form of siRNA, and assembles them into the exosomes produced by the "bioreactor", so that through the exosome "transport" secreted by endogenous cells, it not only protects siRNA to complete the transport across cells and biological barriers, but also has good biocompatibility. The third-generation nucleic acid delivery technology platform created by Aima Biotech ensures the safety of nucleic acid drug delivery and achieves a breakthrough in the "effective delivery system of nucleic acid drugs without extrahepatic". At the same time, this technology platform also completely avoids the high cost of exosomes as a carrier in vitro, the difficulty of quality control, its instability, easy degradation, and unsatisfactory demand. In the case of extremely low dosing concentrations, the drugs developed by Aima Bio can also exert powerful effects in the body. In addition, based on the company's advantages in the field of synthetic biology engineering, Aima Bio can also make drugs carry multi-gene components and have targeting, and finally deliver to different organs through exosomes.
Lu Rong, Managing Partner and President of Yuexiu Industrial Fund, said:
"The rapid development of global cell and gene therapy is expected to become the third pillar industry of biomedicine
after small molecule targeted drugs and large molecule biological drugs. Ama Biologics is committed to achieving
breakthrough therapeutic technologies in the field of unmet diseases with major clinical needs such as central nervous
system (CNS) diseases to develop oligonucleotide drugs. We are very pleased to lead the investment in Ama Biotechnology,
optimistic about the company's technological innovation and the advantages of the combination of production and research,
and believe that the management team's years of academic accumulation and rich industrialization experience can promote
the global innovative self-assembled exosome delivery technology to complete the real clinical innovation, and then simultaneously
solve the nucleic acid delivery and the delivery of central nervous system diseases across the blood-brain barrier. In the future,
Yuexiu Industrial Fund will practice enabling investment, integrate industrial chain resources, promote the industrial docking of
AIMA Biotechnology and invested enterprises, and continue to build an investment ecology for the cell and gene therapy industry. ”
Professor Zhang Chenyu, founder of AiMa Biotechnology, said:
"If there is no professional industrialization team cooperation, then no matter how cutting-edge and excellent technology is, it is
possible to stop at the laboratory stage forever." I am grateful to Dr. Meng Xia and me for partnering to promote the transformation
of the third generation of in vivo self-assembled exosome delivery technology from laboratory research to clinical application, so as
to benefit more patients as soon as possible and realize the purest meaning of this innovative technology." ”
It is understood that Dr. Meng Xia, CEO and co-founder of Aima Biotechnology, has accumulated more than 20 years of work experience
in multinational biotechnology companies, and has led the team to complete the research and development of three innovative drugs of
the first class of viral vectors, and has been approved to enter the clinic. It can be said that it is Dr. Meng Xia, who has both international
vision and experience in new drug development, who has accelerated the transformation of Professor Zhang Chenyu's research results.
Under the leadership of Dr. Meng Xia, within one year of its official operation, Aima Biotech quickly established an industrial team with rich
industrialization experience from scratch, and began to complement and combine with Nanjing University's scientific research. In the 2022
National Biopharmaceutical Technology Innovation Center released the "unveiling" technical research project of nucleic acid drugs, the "Nucleic
Acid Drug Exosome Delivery Technology Platform for Central Nervous System" project led by Dr. Meng Xia of Aima Biotechnology was successfully
selected as one of the "key projects". In this short period of one year, relying on the high-execution team combining production and research, Ama
Biologics completed a large number of animal efficacy experiments and toxicology experiments for the Huntington's disease pipeline, and simultaneously
opened the orphan drug qualification (ODD) application in the FDA.
Deng Ning, Partner of Dingxin Capital, said:
"We were very surprised by the execution ability of the team under the leadership of Dr. Meng Xia, which rarely had such clear target planning and strong
execution in the early project team, which also gave us more confidence in investing in the project. In the capital winter, under the double pressure of epidemic
factors, Ama Biotech can break the cauldron and promote the pipeline project step by step and in accordance with expectations, which allows us to see the
resilience of the team. We at Dingxin Capital also firmly believe that under the impetus of such a combination of production and research, Aima Biologics will
be able to develop drugs that benefit patients and bring hope to patients. ”
Dr. Dan Liu, Senior Partner Innovation & Growth of CDH Investments:
"The progress and results made by Aima Biotech in the past year have given our shareholders a lot of confidence
and warmth. The recognition and affirmation of this advanced technology in industry and regulatory assessments,
and the efficient and rapid advancement of the team's pipeline under the epidemic, may soon bring breakthrough
results in multiple neurological diseases including Huntington's disease, we have great expectations for the
scalability and reproducibility of this platform, and our investors are willing to support the clinical transformation
of truly China's original leading technology, and help Ama Bio benefit more global patients in the future as soon
as possible." ”
Dr. Meng Xia, CEO and co-founder of Ama Biologics, said:
"The huntington's disease faced by the first R&D pipeline of Ama Bio is a rare autosomal dominant genetic disease.
Judging from the results of animal experiments in the early stage, the technology platform of AiMa is expected to
break through the problem of central nervous system disease treatment. We have also simultaneously started orphan
drug certification by the Huntington's disease pipeline in the US FDA, believing that this technology can go to the global
market and be recognized by the global market. In the future, Aima Biotech will continue to focus on unmet clinical
needs in the fields of central nervous system by using the unique third-generation in vivo self-assembled exosome
delivery system, build a world-leading platform-based RNA innovative drug company, and realize the ideal of technological
innovation to serve patients and society. ”
Ai Ma Bio
AiMa Biotech is a start-up in the stage of clinical proof-of-concept on the original First-in-Class technology platform,
co-founded by the team of Professor Zhang Chenyu of the School of Life Sciences of Nanjing University and senior
scientists, clinical medicine, registration, project management and operation management represented by Dr. Meng Xia,
which efficiently promotes the rapid transformation of scientific research results into clinical applications. Committed to
the new third-generation in vivo self-assembled nucleic acid delivery platform technology to develop nucleic acid drugs
for the treatment of central nervous system diseases, it is expected to act on multiple targets, cross the blood-brain barrier,
and achieve safe and effective treatment.
The company's core technology has published a series of papers in top academic journals such as Nature, Science,
Cell Research, Brain, etc., applied for a series of international PCT invention patents and Chinese invention patents,
and was successfully selected as a key project of national nucleic acid drug "unveiling" technology research in
September 2022.
The company is currently focusing on the field of central nervous system diseases, and its first product is used for
the treatment of Huntington's disease, and will submit IND application materials at the end of 2023.