RIGImmune Announces New Funding to Advance Development of RNA Virus Treatments
Program-Related Investment and Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance RIGImmune’s RNA therapeutics platform for influenza and pan-viral respiratory therapies
Company also completes execution of exclusive License Agreement with Yale University
FARMINGTON, Conn., Dec. 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RIGImmune Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of RNA immunotherapeutics, today announced new funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance the company’s RNA stem loop therapeutics platform for the treatment and adjuvancy of respiratory illnesses caused by RNA viruses. RIGImmune is one of the first development companies to receive an Accelerator Program-Related Investment (“PRI”) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Strategic Investment Fund. This new funding is additional to a Gates Foundation grant award that RIGImmune received last year to initiate its work in targeting its stem loop molecules for influenza to create broad spectrum host targeted antivirals.
“This new program-related investment from the Gates Foundation will enable RIGImmune to accelerate our efforts to develop effective treatments and potential vaccine adjuvants for influenza and other respiratory disease caused by RNA viruses,” said Susan Sobolov, Ph.D., president of RIGImmune Inc. “RIGImmune will be further advancing its goals to develop RIG-I agonists that are highly effective, pan-antiviral, and with targeted intranasal delivery that have the potential to prevent transmission. With the support of the Gates Foundation, we desire to bring effective treatments and adjuvants to patients around the globe who suffer from debilitating respiratory diseases.”
RIGImmune, with support from the Gates Foundation, is working toward a goal of developing an intranasal antiviral that can be distributed globally and have immense impact on improving the health in developing countries. Existing direct-acting antiviral drugs are only marginally effective in patients with serious disease and the emergence of multiple viral variants. There is a significant and urgent unmet global medical need for the development of broad-spectrum antivirals against respiratory viruses. RIGImmune’s novel class of host-targeted stem-loop RNA (SLR) therapeutics that harness the body’s innate and adaptive immunity for antiviral defense were developed in the labs of Yale HHMI professors Dr. Anna Marie Pyle and Dr. Akiko Iwasaki. With the Yale license agreement, RIGImmune has been building on their foundational work to advance RIG-101 in IND-enabling activities for the potential treatment of influenza and adjuvancy with the conventional and selected mRNA influenza vaccines in development.
RIGImmune recently completed an agreement with Yale University for an exclusive license to certain Intellectual Property related to the stem loop RNAs developed through the collaborative research conducted at Yale by Drs. Pyle and Iwasaki, including the recently published PCT covering the use of RIGImmune’s SLR therapeutics in respiratory infections caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
About RIGImmune
RIGImmune is a platform biopharmaceutical company developing a novel investigational class of RNA immunotherapies termed “SLRs” for the potential pan-viral treatment and prophylaxis of viral respiratory diseases and selected cancers. The RIGImmune development candidates act to specifically modulate RIG-I, a host surveillance pathway that triggers the innate immune system to enhance an intrinsic response to RNA viruses, including influenza, RSV, rhinovirus, and SARS-CoV-2, and tumor DNA. The lead development candidate at RIGImmune is RIG-101 and the company is developing an intranasal formulation with the acquisition of antiviral company Subintro.
The company was co-founded by the prominent Yale University professors, Anna Marie Pyle, Ph.D. and Akiko Iwasaki, Ph.D., who currently serve as scientific advisors to the company. Dr. Pyle co-discovered the RIG-I receptor family and conducted many of the first structural and biochemical investigations on the cytosolic protein, RIG-I. Dr. Pyle is also a specialist in RNA structure and design. She designed the stem loop RNA therapeutics (SLR) for selective targeting of RIG-I using crystal structure data of RIG-I complexed with RNA and developed them as antitumor and anticancer compounds in collaboration with Dr. Iwasaki, whose expertise in mucosal immunity has been highly sought during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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