Cequent Pharma raises $9 million for RNAi
Cequent Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, Mass., developer of drugs based on a new gene-silencing technology, raised $9 million in a first-round funding. The round was led by the Novartis Option Fund, joined by Ampersand Ventures, Nexus Medical Partners, and Pappas Ventures.
Cequent is developing new treatments based on RNA interference, a Nobel Prize-winning technology that “silences” gene outputs using short stretches of RNA. Its first candidates, none of which have been tested in humans, are aimed at colon-cancer prevention and inflammatory bowel disease.
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About the Author, David P. Hamilton
David Hamilton has been writing for VentureBeat LifeScience since April 2007. He formerly spent 14 years as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its San Francisco and Tokyo bureaus. Prior to that, he spent several years as a reporter at Science Magazine and as a reporter/researcher for the New Republic, both in Washington.