A degenerative disease is a type of a medical condition that causes a tissue or organ to deteriorate over time.

Sironax, a Beijing-based biotech firm focused on the treatment of patients with age-related degenerative diseases, announced a $200 million Series B funding led by Gaorong Capital and Yunfeng Capital, with participation from existing investors including Temasek, Invus, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads, ARCH Venture Partners, K2 Venture Partners and lead investors from previous financings.

In addition to the co-leads, new investors included MSA Capital, CBC Group, Long River Investments, LSV Capital, Superstring Capital, and Future Innovation Fund as well as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

Age-related degenerative diseases

A degenerative disease is a type of a medical condition that causes a tissue or organ to deteriorate over time.

Degenerative diseases are classified into three main groups: cardiovascular, neoplastic, and nervous system. The most common cardiovascular diseases are hypertension, coronary disease, and myocardial infarction. Neoplastic diseases include tumours and cancer. Diseases that affect the nervous system include Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Examples of aging-associated diseases are atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, cataracts, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and Alzheimer’s disease. The incidence of all of these diseases increases exponentially with age.

Sironax’s pipeline is comprised of multiple programs with a focus on key mechanisms underlying age-related degenerative diseases including regulated cell death, neuroprotective pathways and neuroinflammation.

Sironax plans to use the proceeds to support the ongoing clinical development of its portfolio of receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) inhibitors in addition to the continued expansion of its R&D footprint and pipeline of potential best- and first-in-class candidates for age-related degenerative diseases.

“Building upon groundbreaking discoveries—including many by our co-founder Dr. Xiaodong Wang—we have built a robust pipeline of novel programs of both small molecules and biologics that target critical pathways underlying degenerative disease pathogenesis,” said Aaron Ren, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Sironax. “With this investment, we are well-positioned to advance additional programs into the clinic and continue to move our lead program forward.”

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