Rani Therapeutics, a San Jose, CA-based developer of a novel approach for the oral delivery of peptides, proteins and therapeutic antibodies, closed its latest round of funding.
Backers in the round, which brought the total funding raised to date to more than $70m, included new investors AstraZeneca, Virtus Inspire Ventures, and Ping An Ventures and existing investors Novartis, Google Ventures, Buttonwood, GF Ventures, KPC Pharmaceuticals, InCube Ventures and VentureHealth, among others.
The company intends to use the funds for the expansion of the team, new facilities and manufacturing scale up.
Founded in 2012 as a spin out of InCube Labs, and led by Mir Imran, Chairman & CEO, Rani is developing a novel technology platform to convert injectable drugs such as TNF-alpha inhibitors, interleukin antibodies, basal insulin and GLP-1 into oral pills.
In the last year, the company has entered into strategic collaborations with Novartis and Astra Zeneca/MedImmune to test its platform with selected drugs.
To lead the company’s expansion, Rani recently hired Robert Gaffney as Vice President of Operations. Gaffney joined from Spinal Modulation, an InCube Labs company acquired by St. Jude Medical in 2015, where he served as Chief Operating Officer.
FinSMEs
24/02/2016