FOXBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Suono Bio, Inc., the company revolutionizing the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, today announced it has raised an $8.5 million Series A financing led by Axil Capital and Mizuho Securities Principal Investment, with participation by Taiwania Capital and other investors. Suono Bio will utilize the funds to advance its lead programs in inflammatory bowel disease as well as expansion of its pipeline. Suono Bio’s platform technology enables the rapid, targeted delivery of drugs, including gene therapies, for the first time, enabling the use of the right drug in the right patient.
Suono Bio leverages technology developed in the laboratory of Institute Professor Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to facilitate rapid, local administration of therapeutics to treat serious diseases. The company was founded by Professor Langer, Professor Giovanni Traverso, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist and biomedical engineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Carl Schoellhammer. Publications on the technology have appeared in Nature, Gastroenterology, and Science Translational Medicine, and the company has previously announced strategic investments from FUJIFILM Corporation and NGK Spark Plug Co., LTD.
“Suono Bio’s technology is poised to accelerate novel therapeutics to the clinic by finally overcoming the challenges with delivering drugs like DNA or RNA,” said Frederick Shane, Managing Partner of Axil, who joined the Board of Directors. “Their technology spans beyond a single product or asset to a whole new platform of products to treat debilitating diseases and we are thrilled to lead this round,” he added.
“We are thrilled to have marquee investors involved with Suono Bio and speaks to the rapid pace with which the team has taken a conceptual technology from Prof. Langer’s lab and operationalized it to address pressing health issues,” said Scott Kellogg, CEO. Proceeds from the Series A financing will allow completion of the development of the company’s first product for treating ulcerative colitis, readying it for human trials, and further the development of the overall technology platform.
“The ability to deliver macromolecules, including DNA and RNA based medicines outside of the liver and in a formulation-independent approach could be applied to many diseases and benefit a tremendous number of patients,” said Professor Robert Langer, co-founder and Board Member. “We are excited to be able to advance the development of an approach which has the capacity to rapidly and effectively deliver a broad array of therapeutics from small molecules to nucleic acids,” added Professor Giovanni Traverso, co-founder and Board Member.
ABOUT SUONO BIO
Suono Bio is developing therapeutic products for inflammatory-mediated diseases leveraging their ultra-rapid and formulation independent delivery technology. Suono Bio’s platform was developed at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Professor Robert Langer’s laboratory and enables rapid, localized delivery of small molecules, biologics, and nucleic acids and gene therapies without the need for encapsulation of the therapeutic. For more information, please visit www.suonobio.com.
ABOUT AXIL CAPITAL
Axil Capital Partners is a Tokyo based venture capital firm specializing in biomedical & healthcare technology investments with an emphasis on supporting the growth of early-stage ventures. The firm invests in a wide range of companies in the life sciences space, with a particular focus on cross-disciplinary technologies that can transform the future of healthcare. For more information, please visit https://www.axilcapital.com/.
