Circio completes NOK300m financing to fund circular RNA platform development

Circio Holding ASA has secured NOK300m (€27m) in gross proceeds from the exercise of warrants and an underwritten private placement, concluding a financing package that the Oslo-listed biotech says brings its total capital raised in the first half of 2026 to approximately NOK620m (€57m). The new capital is intended to support preclinical development of Circio’s circular RNA-based gene expression technology, circVec, and to move a lead gene therapy programme toward an investigational new drug filing and clinical proof-of-concept.

The financing was completed through the exercise of 25,781,827 warrants at NOK8.2508 per share, generating NOK212.7m, alongside NOK87.3m subscribed by underwriters under a private placement mechanism. Circio said more than 400 individual subscribers participated in the warrant exercise, with support from several existing main shareholders as well as management and employees.

“This new funding is truly transformational for Circio,” said CEO Dr Erik D Wiklund. “It will allow us to accelerate pre-clinical development of the circVec platform as a novel gold-standard gene expression system for next generation gene and cell therapies.” He added that Circio had also secured the resources “to bring a lead program forward towards clinical proof-of-concept and, in parallel, build Circio into an international caliber end-to-end biotech player with a leading and highly differentiated circular RNA technology.”

Ongoing transformation

The financing also formalises a strategic shift that has been underway for several years. Circio was previously known as Targovax and built its original pipeline around cancer immunotherapies, including ONCOS-102, an oncolytic adenovirus, and TG01, a KRAS-targeted therapeutic cancer vaccine. Both assets generated clinical data: ONCOS-102 was tested in Phase I/II studies in indications including mesothelioma and melanoma, while TG01 was evaluated in pancreatic cancer and other RAS-mutated cancers. But neither programme became the basis for a self-funded late-stage oncology pipeline.

Instead, the former Targovax portfolio has increasingly moved into an optional or externally supported position. Circio has stated that further development of ONCOS-102 would require external financing or partnerships, while TG01 studies have continued through academic collaborations and grant-supported work.

The company’s internal focus is now clearly elsewhere. Its current pipeline is built around circVec, a circular RNA expression platform being developed for gene and cell therapy, with programmes in AAV-based gene therapy and in vivo CAR-T. The new financing gives Circio the runway to advance that platform from preclinical validation toward an IND filing and clinical proof-of-concept.

Circio describes circVec as a modular genetic construct designed to generate multifunctional circular RNA inside target cells. The premise is that circular RNA, because of its closed-loop structure, can be more stable than linear messenger RNA and support longer-lasting protein expression. In gene and cell therapy, that could be relevant for two persistent challenges: the need to reduce viral vector doses in AAV gene therapy, and the limited durability of some non-viral or mRNA-based expression systems.

The company says circVec has demonstrated a 75-fold increase in RNA half-life and up to 50-fold higher protein expression compared with conventional mRNA-based viral and non-viral vector systems. Circio’s most recent development focus has been on AAV gene therapy and in vivo CAR-T approaches. In its pipeline, the company lists in-house AAV gene therapy programmes for heart and eye indications, a CNS programme in pharma collaboration, and an in vivo CAR-T programme targeting spleen and immune cells. Milestones for the second half of 2026 include CNS in vivo data, disease-model efficacy data, and in vivo work on T-cell-targeted LNP delivery and CAR expression.

Home run

The change of technological focus has coincided with an extraordinary share-price move. Circio’s stock has been one of the more volatile biotech stories on the Oslo market this year, with Norwegian financial press describing a rapid speculative run-up followed by a steep correction in April. The same article noted that the stock had been up around 2,500% over the previous year.

The relevance of the share-price move is less the trading itself than what it says about Circio’s financing window. The company appears to have used a period of heightened market attention to repair its balance sheet and fund a longer development plan. The new funds follow earlier fundraisings this year and give Circio unusual visibility for a small, preclinical platform company.

Circio’s Chair of the Board of Directors, Damian Marron, called the transaction the completion of “a remarkable turnaround for Circio”. That is a fair description of the financial situation, though the scientific and translational turnaround remains to be proven. circVec’s promise rests on whether the impressive expression and durability claims can be converted into disease-relevant efficacy, manufacturable products and a development path acceptable to regulators. The next stage will therefore be less about circular RNA as a concept and more about candidate selection, indication choice, delivery strategy and the quality of in vivo efficacy data.