New RNA company Inverna Therapeutics launched
Inverna Therapeutics, a Danish biotech company, has officially launched to develop innovative RNA-based therapies targeting severe genetic diseases. Co-founded by the University of Southern Denmark and Argobio, Inverna will focus on its lead programme addressing Huntington’s disease.
Inverna’s novel paradigm is based on the pioneering research of Professor Brage Storstein Andresen in RNA splicing. The company aims to overcome the limitations of current RNA therapeutics by leveraging sequence-based splice modulation to deliver precise, allele-specific treatments with minimal off-target effects. “It is fantastic to have the opportunity to translate our many years of research on pre-mRNA splicing regulation in human disease into new RNA precision medicines,” said Professor Andresen, co-founder and CSO of Inverna.
The keytopic of the research and company are so-called Pseudoexons. Pseudoexons can lead to splicing errors, resulting in defective mRNAs, which in turn produce abnormal protein products or non-functional proteins. Inverna Therapeutics is poised to advance its pipeline of RNA splicing therapeutics to target diseases such as Huntington’s disease and other severe genetic conditions for which effective treatments are currently lacking.
Argobio, a leading European biotech start-up studio, played a key role in the company’s establishment, providing initial funding and operational expertise. “We are very pleased to transform another outstanding academic project into a promising industry player. Inverna fits perfectly into our model, with access to cutting-edge science and our unique expertise in building and running biotech companies,” said Thierry Laugel, Chairman of Argobio.
Argobio SAS has been kicked off in 2021 with €50m of committed capital from Kurma Partners, and the state bank Bpifrance. Co-investors include Angelini Pharma, Evotec, and the Institut Pasteur.
