Latest news with #StrandTherapeutics
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Strand raises another $153M to make ‘programmable' mRNA drugs
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Strand Therapeutics has raised a $153 million Series B round fresh off unveiling early, but promising results for a cancer therapy it's making with messenger RNA technology. The biotechnology startup plans to use the funding to advance that therapy, STX-001, into further testing. A second, experimental medicine called STX-003 should start a Phase 1 clinical trial next year, said Jake Becraft, Strand's CEO and co-founder. Strand is making what it describes as 'programmable' mRNA therapies that are meant to express proteins in a targeted and timely fashion. Its lead therapy contains the genetic instructions for IL-12, a cytokine that's been well-studied by drugmakers as a potential booster to cancer immunotherapies, but with mixed results. Rather than administering a recombinant version of the protein, though, Strand uses an mRNA construct to get into tumor cells so they express IL-12, making them more visible to the immune system. The result is supposed to be a precise and powerful cancer-killing blow. Data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting earlier this year offered a glimpse at the approach's promise. In a small, early-stage study, treatment with STX-001 was associated with multiple responses, including one complete response, in people whose solid tumors hadn't responded to widely used 'checkpoint inhibitor' cancer immunotherapies. The result 'underpins what a genetic modality like messenger RNA can offer in this setting,' Becraft said. That study is ongoing and testing STX-001 as a monotherapy or alongside Merck & Co.'s checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda against multiple tumor types. Strand's Series B round was led by Kinnevik, a European venture capital firm that's invested in biotechs like Recursion Pharmaceuticals and Enveda Biosciences. A dozen other investors also participated, among them Regeneron Ventures, Amgen Ventures and Eli Lilly, and the family office of former Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky. Before this year's raise, Strand had banked $97 million to fund its research. The company was launched in 2017 by Becraft and co-founder Tasuku Kitada, years before mRNA technology played a starring role in ending the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest financing comes as mRNA vaccines have become a political target. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled nearly $500 million in research funding for mRNA vaccine research. Strand, though, is using mRNA to make therapeutics instead of vaccines, and Becraft contended the technology's 'future is incredibly bright.' Strand has five other programs in development. Among them are STX-003, which is targeting non-small cell lung cancer and other tumors, and a pair of programs aimed at blood malignancies. Strand also hopes to eventually prove it can deliver its drugs to a variety of organs and tissues, a difficult hurdle for many developers of genetic medicines to overcome. 'We're interested in anywhere we can create new medicines or innovate on massive limitations of existing medicines,' Becraft said.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Strand Therapeutics Raises $153 Million Series B Financing to Further Advance Programmable mRNA Therapeutic Pipeline
Funding will advance Strand's pipeline and mission to bring targeted, next-generation mRNA therapies to patients First-in-human solid tumor Phase 1 data from lead program, STX-001, was recently presented at 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting BOSTON, August 07, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Strand Therapeutics, a leader in next-generation mRNA-based therapeutics, today announced $153M Series B funding led by Kinnevik, with new investors Regeneron Ventures, ICONIQ, Amgen Ventures, Alderline Group (the family office of Alex Gorsky), JIC-VGI, LG Technology Ventures, and Gradiant Corporation, with continued participation from existing investors including FPV Ventures, Playground Global, Eli Lilly and Company, ANRI, and Potentum. To date, Strand has raised over $250M. As part of the financing, Ala Alenazi, Ph.D., of Kinnevik, will join the company's Board of Directors. The funding will advance Strand's pipeline, led by STX-001, a programmable mRNA therapy that expresses the cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12) directly from the tumor microenvironment. The company recently announced promising initial Phase 1 clinical data for patients with advanced solid tumors at the 2025 ASCO annual meeting, noting multiple RECIST responses (including cases of complete response and complete metabolic response), multiple cases of prolonged disease stabilization, and a favorable safety profile in treatment-resistant patients. Earlier this year, Strand also presented preclinical data for STX-003, a world-first systemically administrable mRNA therapy with tumor targeting that is programmed to avoid off-target payload delivery (including liver avoidance), showing the first glimpse into the massive potential of their programmable mRNA genetic circuits. Data presented at the 2025 AACR and ASGCT annual meetings demonstrated the candidate's potential to target expression of IL-12 to tumors following systemic administration of the LNP-mRNA drug, creating an effective anti-tumor therapy that was well tolerated. IL-12 is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokine primarily produced by antigen-presenting cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. IL-12 holds significant promise in cancer immunotherapy due to its robust immunostimulatory effects. STX-001 encodes IL-12 which Strand has designed so that it can reprogram the tumor microenvironment and stimulate a systemic anti-tumor immune response. Unlike traditional mRNA therapies, Strand's approach uses self-replicating mRNA, ensuring localized and durable therapeutic activity. "We believe programmable RNA is the next frontier in therapeutics, and Strand has built the leading platform to unlock it," said Christian Scherrer, Senior Investment Director and Head of Health and Bio at Kinnevik. "Their early clinical data is outstanding, and the systemic delivery capability has the potential to reshape how we treat disease, starting with cancer, with more disease targets on the horizon. We look forward to partnering with founders Jake and Tasuku and the entire team as they move into this next phase of growth." "With support from our investors, we're advancing our vision of developing safe, effective, and accessible therapies through programmable genetic medicines, especially for those patients with few treatment options," said Jake Becraft, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Strand Therapeutics. "Our initial STX-001 Phase 1 data provides early and strong clinical validation of our platform's capabilities. We have observed systemic immune activation and anti-tumor responses, including responses in non-injected lesions, across multiple tumor types. Now is an exciting period of expansion for our existing clinical work, as well as the exciting breakthrough assets in our pipeline, all with the potential to transform the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases." Strand's proprietary platform for programmable and potent mRNA therapeutics is the first of its kind. Its therapies combine best-in-class engineered next-generation mRNA modalities, such as self-replicating mRNA and circular RNA, with genetically programmed logic circuits, allowing for precise, controlled therapeutic payload delivery directly into the cells/tissues themselves. The novel approach brings the potential to effectively treat cancer and other deadly chronic diseases through its targeted therapies that are scalable, accessible, and expand the treatment landscape for patients desperately in need. About STX-001 STX-001 is an investigational multi-mechanistic, synthetic self-replicating mRNA technology that expresses an IL-12 cytokine for an extended period of time, directly administered to tumors in order to promote immune modulation and antitumor activity. The company received IND clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2023 to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for STX-001, announced its first patient dosed just before the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting, and presented the first data of the trial at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting. Additional details can be found at using identifier: NCT06249048. About Strand Therapeutics Strand Therapeutics is leading the next generation of programmable mRNA therapies: where synthetic biology meets programmable biology to unlock the full potential of gene regulation and delivery inside the body. Unlike traditional mRNA technologies, Strand's platform programs RNA to think, enabling logic-controlled expression, precision delivery, and unprecedented control over therapeutic outcomes. Born out of MIT and led by world-class synthetic biologists, Strand is building the infrastructure to create medicines that respond to disease signals in real-time. With its computationally-driven design engine, self-amplifying/circular RNA modalities, and mRNA-only genetic circuits, the company is pioneering a new therapeutic modality poised to disrupt immuno-oncology, cell therapy, autoimmune diseases, and beyond. Strand's lead pipeline program, STX-001, is already in the clinic showing unprecedented response rates in late stage "salvage" cancer patients, with multiple patients showing RECIST responses. Strand's modular platform opens a broad horizon of partnership and licensing opportunities. Strand isn't just another mRNA company: it's the operating system for the programmable medicines of tomorrow. Follow us on LinkedIn and on X at @strandtx. View source version on Contacts Media contacts:Karen Sharmaksharma@ Shannia Coleyscoley@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
MIT Spinout Strand Therapeutics Raises $153 Million To Make Cancerous Tumors Light Up
Strand Therapeutics founders Jake Becraft (left) and Tasuku Kitada Jon Chomitz As a grad student in biological engineering at MIT, Jake Becraft had an idea that could change the way we treat cancer: What if genes could be turned on and off like light switches? Thinking it through a bit further, he envisioned 'circuits' in which messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries the instructions for making proteins to cells, could be programmed to cause cancerous tumors to reveal themselves to the body's immune system. It was an idea at the cutting-edge of science, and when Becraft cofounded Cambridge, Mass.-based Strand Therapeutics to pursue it there was no guarantee of success. Now, eight years later, Strand seems on the cusp of it. Strand's preliminary phase 1 clinical trial showed that its first programmable mRNA drug is not only safe, but can shrink tumors in cancer patients who had otherwise run out of treatment options. 'It shocked even us,' Becraft told Forbes. 'You hope something happens, but you don't expect to see a huge response because these patients have already proven to have cancers so resistant to treatment.' With those results, Strand Therapeutics raised $153 million in new venture funding led by Swedish investment giant Kinnevik to build out its programmable mRNA therapeutics pipeline. Other investors include VC firms Iconiq and Playground Global; Regeneron Ventures, the venture arm of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; and drugmakers Amgen and Eli Lilly. The investment brings Strand's total funding to $250 million and its valuation to an estimated $550 million. That number pales in comparison to the stratospheric valuations of today's AI startups, but it's a significant one for a clinical-stage biotech that was worth $359 million at its last round, in November 2024, according to venture-capital database PitchBook. The funding comes at a time when biotech firms have been struggling to raise money and the public markets are filled with zombie biotechs that are trading below their cash on hand. Strand, which hopes to get its first therapy on the market by 2030, does not yet have revenue. Most people know mRNA as the backbone of the vaccines from Moderna and BioNTech during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite their success, those vaccines have become a political football, with Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing on Tuesday that he was pulling $500 million of federal funding from mRNA vaccine projects. But mRNA could potentially be used to treat a variety of diseases, from cancer to heart disease. Unlike Covid-19 vaccines, which send instructions to a cell's nucleus to create antigens for a virus, Strand's mRNA therapeutics instruct tumors to produce signals that make them visible to the body's immune system—essentially lighting them up–so that it can fight back. 'The clinical results blew us away,' said Ala Alenazi, an investment manager at Kinnevik, who will join Strand's board of directors with the deal. 'They have been able to prove out these ambitions that had stayed in textbooks.' 'What's become very clear in the past year or year-and-a-half is that the age of messenger RNA and genetic medicines is finally here.' Jake Becraft, cofounder and CEO, Strand Therapeutics Becraft, who is now 34, calls himself 'a reluctant biotech executive.' In 2017, he and Tasuku Kitada, the company's president and head of research and development—the first scientist to create synthetic mRNA gene circuits while working as a researcher at MIT—spun Strand out of MIT. Becraft's Ph.D. advisor, Ron Weiss, a professor of biological engineering whose work focuses on engineering cells and building circuits, was also a cofounder and remains an advisor to the company. In 2019, Strand scored seed funding with Playground leading the round. Its valuation then was just $15.5 million, according to venture-capital database PitchBook. 'They were young Ph.D.s with amazing ideas when we first met with them,' said Jory Bell, a general partner at Playground Global. Becraft has long believed that the biggest barrier to new and personalized medicines is delivery. Today, many therapies are administered by 'brute forcing the proteins into the right cells,' requiring lengthy hospital stays for patients and high costs for insurers, he said. 'What we want to do is deliver proteins that have a therapeutic outcome into a cancer cell or immune cell or into the bone marrow,' he said. That targeting allows the treatment to be potent where it's needed without being toxic where it isn't. 'What's become very clear in the past year or year-and-a-half is that the age of messenger RNA and genetic medicines is finally here,' he said. 'We see that as the path to how we will build medicines in the future.' Consider the first protein that Strand is working with, an immune system stimulant called interleukin 12, or IL-12. It's promising as a cancer immunotherapy, but so far its toxicity has outweighed any anti-cancer benefits. Without targeting, 'it is ineffective or toxic,' Becraft said. 'You want effective and non-toxic.' The results of Strand's study of 22 cancer patients showed it was possible to use targeting to create a potent therapy that wasn't toxic, he said. 'From the very first patients we dosed, we started to see the tumors shrinking,' he said. 'They have been able to prove out these ambitions that had stayed in textbooks.' Ala Alenazi, investment manager, Kinnevik Referring to a contrast dye scan of a patient with stage 4 melanoma, Becraft noted tumors, indicated with black dots, across the body. A second scan of the same patient after treatment with Strand's mRNA drug revealed a stunning improvement. 'The only dot left was where the contrast agent was injected in their arm,' Becraft said. 'I don't think anyone expects that. This was very shocking.' But even with results like this, it's a long road from early clinical trials to commercialization. Strand now plans to use its new influx of funds to conduct additional clinical research with the hopes of getting its first drug approved by 2030. The company also has a few other pre-clinical mRNA therapies in its pipeline, including one that gets infused through a patient's bloodstream rather than injected into a tumor. That would allow it to potentially be used for additional types of cancer that are harder to reach, such as lung cancer. 'We can rewire the way we treat cancer,' Becraft said. 'We think we are just on the precipice of what this technology can do.' 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Korea Herald
03-08-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
LG deepens biohealth push with investment in US anticancer biotech
LG Group is accelerating its push into the biohealth sector by investing in Strand Therapeutics, a US-based developer of messenger RNA-based cancer therapies. LG recently participated as a Series B investor in Strand Therapeutics through its venture capital arm, LG Technology Ventures, according to industry sources on Sunday. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the biopharma firm was founded in 2017 by a group of synthetic biologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The firm specializes in programming cells within the body to produce precise amounts of antigens at the right time to treat cancer, autoimmune conditions and rare diseases. With this latest investment, LG Technology Ventures' cumulative funding in biotech startups is estimated to have surpassed $50 million. The move aligns with LG's strategic emphasis on 'ABC' industries ― artificial intelligence, bio and clean tech ― as future growth engines. The conglomerate is focusing on creating cross-sector synergies by integrating advanced technologies with health care and sustainability-driven ventures. The group's Chair Koo Kwang-mo underscored the importance of AI and biotechnology in his New Year's address, saying, 'We are striving for a future where loved ones can live longer, healthier lives through breakthrough therapies.' In February, LG made a follow-up investment in ADARx Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego-based company developing first-in-class treatments for rare metabolic diseases through appetite suppression. LG has also invested in several other biohealth innovators, including: Aetion, Eko Health and Accellex. To strengthen its research and development capabilities, LG is increasingly integrating AI with biotechnology. Earlier this month, LG AI Research, the artificial intelligence arm of LG Group, unveiled Exaone Pass 2.0, an AI diagnostic model capable of identifying cancer in under one minute.
Business Wire
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Strand Therapeutics Announces Initial First-in-human Phase 1 Data for STX-001 in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors at The 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Strand Therapeutics, a leader in next-generation mRNA-based therapeutics, today announced exciting preliminary Phase 1 clinical data for its lead investigational candidate, STX-001, in patients with advanced solid tumors. The study marks the first clinical evidence of Strand's proprietary programmable mRNA technology platform and represents a major milestone in the company's mission to bring next-generation mRNA therapies to patients with cancer. 'This is a transformative moment for Strand and for the field of synthetic mRNA therapeutics,' said Jake Becraft, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Strand Therapeutics. 'The Phase 1 data for STX-001 provide early clinical validation of our platform." Share In the ongoing first-in-human Phase 1, open-label, dose-escalation clinical trial, STX-001 demonstrated a favorable safety profile and encouraging signs of anti-tumor activity as a monotherapy in patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-refractory solid tumors, including melanoma and other solid tumor indications. As of the April 3rd, 2025 data cutoff, the trial had enrolled 22 patients across multiple sites in the United States and Australia. All patients were treated with STX-001 as a monotherapy (without combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors, etc.) with injections to surface accessible lesions. The data will be presented at The 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago on June 1 by Sarina Piha-Paul, M.D., professor of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 'This investigational therapy has the potential to address an important unmet need in patients with checkpoint inhibitor-refractory advanced cancers,' said Dr. Piha-Paul. 'We're observing systemic immune activation and antitumor responses, including in non-injected lesions, across multiple tumor types, which is encouraging and supports continued evaluation.' Key highlights from the Phase 1 trial include: Preliminary Clinical Activity: Multiple RECIST responses were observed, including a confirmed complete response and multiple partial responses. Furthermore, there were multiple cases of prolonged disease stabilization. Safety and Tolerability: STX-001 was well-tolerated up to 300 µg. Treatment-related adverse events were consistent with STX-001's intended mechanism of action of immune activation. Pharmacodynamic Activity: Biomarker analysis confirmed dose-dependent increase in plasma IL-12 and IFN-γ, as well as infiltration of immune cells within the tumor microenvironment. 'This is a transformative moment for Strand and for the field of synthetic mRNA therapeutics,' said Jake Becraft, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Strand Therapeutics. 'The Phase 1 data for STX-001 provide early clinical validation of our platform's ability to deliver programmable, tumor-localized immunotherapy safely and effectively. Our mRNA medicines as a therapeutic modality offer the potential capability to broaden pathways to treatment for patients while seamlessly integrating into the existing healthcare ecosystem.' STX-001 encodes IL-12, an immunomodulatory protein, which the company has designed such that it can reprogram the tumor microenvironment and stimulate a systemic anti-tumor immune response. Unlike traditional mRNA therapies, Strand's approach uses self-replicating mRNA, ensuring localized and durable therapeutic activity. The company is currently conducting dose expansion in the Phase 1 trial. Upon completion, the company plans to transition into a Phase 2 trial of STX-001 as a monotherapy. The company also plans to initiate dose escalation of STX-001 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and expand into additional solid tumor indications. In addition, Strand is advancing a broader pipeline powered by the company's first-in-class cell-type specific mRNA engineering platform, including advancing STX-003, an intravenously administered version of STX-001, to patients in 2026. ASCO Poster Presentation Information: Abstract Title: Phase I dose escalation trial of STX-001, an LNP-encapsulated self-replicating mRNA expressing IL-12, in patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors. Session Type: Poster Date and Time: June 1, 9:00 AM-12:00 PM CDT Abstract Number: 9556 Location: Hall A Full abstract is available on the ASCO Annual Meeting Website. The study, an open-label, dose escalation trial, evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD), and preliminary antitumor activity of STX-001 in patients with advanced solid tumors. STX-001 was well-tolerated up to 300 µg, with dose-dependent and manageable treatment-related adverse events. Promising early clinical activity was observed, including multiple RECIST responses and durable disease stabilization. Findings support the further development of STX-001 as a monotherapy and in combination with checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of solid tumors. Additional Commentary Professor Georgina Long AO, BSc, PhD, MBBS, FRACP, FAHMS, AAHMS, FAA, Medical Director of Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA), and Chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Research at MIA and Royal North Shore Hospital, The University of Sydney: 'I am encouraged by this early data. While intratumoral therapies offer a promising approach by initiating immune activation at the injected tumor site, they have historically struggled to generate robust systemic responses. STX-001 may represent a meaningful step forward, with early clinical evidence showing cases of regression of non-injected lesions, a sign of systemic immune engagement.' Tasuku Kitada, PhD, Co-Founder, President, and Head of R&D at Strand Therapeutics: 'Patients who are refractory to immune checkpoint inhibitors urgently need new treatment options. While IL-12 has long been recognized as a powerful immune stimulator, its clinical potential has been limited by toxicity, and to date, no IL-12–based therapies have been approved by the FDA. STX-001 is designed to overcome these challenges, delivering localized IL-12 expression to activate the tumor microenvironment and drive systemic immune responses, all while seeking to minimize toxicities. These early data suggest we may finally be able to realize the promise of IL-12 in cancer therapy.' About STX-001 STX-001 is an investigational multi-mechanistic, synthetic self-replicating mRNA technology that expresses an IL-12 cytokine for an extended period of time, directly injected into the tumor microenvironment in order to promote immune modulation and antitumor activity. The company received IND clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2023 to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for STX-001, and announced its first patient dosed just before the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. Additional study details can be found at using identifier: NCT06249048. About Strand Therapeutics Strand Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing programmable mRNA therapeutics to transform the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. Founded by synthetic biology pioneers from MIT, Strand's proprietary platform integrates synthetic gene circuits with mRNA delivery to enable targeted, controlled, and intelligent therapies. The company is based in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, visit Follow us on LinkedIn and on X at @StrandTx.
