Moonwalk to Use $70 Million to Develop RNAi Therapies for Obesity, Cardiometabolic...
Biotech company Moonwalk Biosciences announced that it has raised $70 million from an oversubscribed series B financing round. The company plans to use the funds to continue developing its adipose-targeted RNAi therapies for obesity and cardiometabolic conditions.
The financing round was co-led by Alpha Wave Ventures and YK Bioventures, with participation from Eli Lilly and Company, Gaorong Ventures, and existing investors ARCH Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Future Ventures. According to Moonwalk, some of the proceeds from the financing round will be used to advance its lead obesity candidate, dubbed MW101, into human clinical trials in late 2027 following completion of IND-enabling studies. The funds will also be used to expand the company’s pipeline of siRNA medicines and build out its proprietary discovery platform.
“Obesity places an extraordinary physical and emotional burden on millions of people,” said Alex Aravanis, MD, PhD, CEO & co-founder of Moonwalk Biosciences. “This financing brings us closer to developing a new generation of adipose-targeted medicines designed to improve outcomes for people living with obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases.”
Moonwalk’s programs focus on delivering siRNA therapeutics directly to adipose tissue to modulate pathways involved in energy homeostasis, adipogenesis, lipolysis and thermogenesis while minimizing effects on other tissues. The company exclusively licensed the adipose-targeting chemistry for its pipeline from Suzhou Siran Biotechnology.
Across multiple preclinical studies, Moonwalk has demonstrated reductions in body weight and fat mass while preserving lean muscle mass without reducing food intake with its approach. Its scientists have also generated translational evidence demonstrating favorable modulation of metabolic pathways consistent with healthy adipose remodeling. In non-human primate studies, Moonwalk demonstrated durable adipose target engagement following a single dose, supporting the potential for quarterly or twice-yearly dosing.
“Obesity is one of the most significant global health challenges, and Moonwalk is pursuing a fundamentally different approach to treating it,” said Rick Gerson, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Alpha Wave Global. “What stood out to us about Moonwalk is the depth of the science behind the platform and the strength of the preclinical evidence generated to date,” noted Chris Dimitropoulos, managing director, life sciences Investments of Alpha Wave Global. “By combining adipose-selective RNAi delivery with human genetics, epigenomics and multiomics discovery, the Moonwalk team has devised a highly precise way to modulate adipose biology.”
In addition to the financing, the company announced that Stephen Djedjos, MD, will take the helm as senior vice president, clinical development at Moonwalk, bringing more than 20 years of clinical and drug development experience. Most recently, he served as SVP and head of clinical development at Kailera Therapeutics, where he led clinical development of the company’s incretin therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases. He has also previously held senior clinical development roles at Mineralys Therapeutics, Sana Biotechnology, Gilead Sciences and Amgen.
NewsAdipose tissue developmentCardiologyEpigenomicsHuman geneticsMetabolic disordersMultiomicsObesityRNA interferenceMoonwalk BiosciencesPrevious article
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