Aurora Science

InteRNA Technologies secures additional equity financing to progress lead program for melanoma treatment Nijmegen/Utrecht (the Netherlands) – InteRNA Technologies B.V., a biopharma company engaged in the development of microRNA (miRNA)-based therapeutics for oncology, announces today the closing of an equity financing round. New investors participating in this round include the 'Innovation & Investment Fund Gelderland', managed by PPM Oost and several business angels.

Peptomyc is a company focused on the development of a new generation of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) targeting the Myc oncoprotein for cancer treatment. The company was founded in December 2014 and it is based on Dr. Soucek’s scientific research in Omomyc (the best direct Myc inhibitor known to date) over the last twenty years. Currently, cancer incidence in the world exceeds 14 million cases per year and results in 8 million deaths annually. Moreover, such numbers are forecast to rise by 75% over the next 20 years (World Cancer Report. International Agency for Research on Cancer 2014). At the moment, standard therapies include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and, in a restricted subset of cancers, precision medicine. Unfortunately, very often these therapies fail, due to the development of resistance. Peptomyc has adopted a different strategy based on the inhibition of the oncoprotein Myc, which is found deregulated in the majority of human cancers. Myc holds a non-redundant function in cancer around which tumors cannot evolve, hence targeting Myc is the most promising therapeutic opportunity to date. Although Myc plays a central role in cancer there is currently no Myc inhibitor in the market.