Aerska develops RNA medicines for the treatment of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, which affect millions of people worldwide.
Dublin-based Aerska has received $21m (€17.8m) in seed financing to develop next-generation ribonucleic acid molecule interference (RNAi) medicines designed to treat, delay and prevent diseases of the brain.
The funding round was co-led by Age1, Backed VC and Speedinvest, with backing from Norrsken VC, Blueyard, Lingotto (Exor), Kerna, PsyMed, Saras, and Ada Ventures.
Fifty million people were suffering from dementia in 2020, according to a report by Alzheimer’s Disease International. This number is expected to almost double every two decades, and may reach more than 150 million by 2050.
Dementia, for which there is currently no cure, can be caused by a number of diseases which over time destroy nerve cells and damage the brain. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which contributes to between 60 and 70% of cases, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Dementia is estimated to cost economies $1.3trn globally, according to a 2019 WHO estimate.
While RNAi has proven to be effective in the liver, delivering genetic medicines to the central nervous system has long been hindered by the blood-brain barrier. Aerska has developed a platform that uses so-called “brain shuttles” which it says enable delivery and silence the genes that cause harm.
“Neurological diseases remain one of the greatest challenges in medicine, with limited options to alter the course of disease. By integrating brain shuttles with RNA therapeutics, we aim to enable precise, durable gene silencing in the central nervous system. We’re pairing this with a strategy to match the intervention to the right patient, at the right stage of their disease,” said CEO and co-founder Jack O’Meara.
Experienced management team
O’Meara is a former CEO and co-founder of biotech firm Ochre Bio, where he helped advance a pipeline of RNAi medicines for liver disease and close more than $1bn in pharmaceutical partnerships.
The strong track record of O’Meara and his management team was one of the key reasons London-based venture capitalist Ada Ventures first invested in Aerska last year, Francesca Warner, its co-founding partner, said in a statement on the company website.
“Aerska’s research is a meaningful step toward healthy ageing. We’re entering an era in which living to 100 could become far more common: from 14,000 centenarians in 1950 to 750,000 today, with millions projected in the coming decades. Preserving cognitive health is essential to quality of life at any age, and shifting from reactive care to preventative medicine is critical,” Warner said.
