RNA therapies developer miRecule is partnered with Sanofi on the development of a treatment for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD. MiRecule, winner in the biopharma track of MedCity News’s Pitch Perfect startup competition, is now pursuing a Series A round of financing.
For biotech companies with platform technologies, one common goal is finding a big pharmaceutical partner interested in jumping onto that platform sooner or later. For miRecule, the collaboration came sooner. Within four years of its formation and still preclinical, the startup found itself working with Sanofi to develop an RNA therapy for a rare muscle disorder.
The disease, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), is the second most common type of muscular dystrophy behind Duchenne muscular dystrophy. But unlike Duchenne, FSHD has no FDA-approved treatments. MiRecule co-founder and CEO Anthony Saleh said he connected with Sanofi at a BIO conference, where the two companies realized they have complementary approaches to the R&D of a novel FSHD therapy.
“They were already working on antibodies that they can use for delivery to the muscle,” Saleh said. “They were also interested in FSHD. That’s how we came together. We were going to do it on our own. But we know that working together, we would be more likely to be successful.”
Click here to continue reading.