Sensible Biotechnologies has secured $47 million in financing to advance and scale its platform for naturally modified mRNA medicines. The financing includes a Series A led by Oxford Science Enterprises and up to $20 million of non-dilutive funding from the Government of Slovakia and the European Union.
New investors OTB Ventures and In-Q-Tel participated in the Series A alongside existing investors Recode Ventures, Isomer Capital, Y Combinator, Backed VC, Kaya VC, Civilization Ventures and BlueYard Capital.
Individual investors included the family office of BioNTech co-founder Christoph Huber and former Eli Lilly Chief Medical Officer Tim Garnett.
Sensible plans to use the capital to expand its VECTOR platform, AI-enabled mRNA design and automated high-throughput screening capabilities and establish clinical-grade manufacturing.
The company’s approach differs from conventional synthetic mRNA manufacturing by using engineered living cells to manufacture naturally modified mRNA.
VECTOR combines computational and AI-enabled sequence optimization, high-throughput screening and proprietary engineered eukaryotic cells.
Sensible’s PromPT technology captures and protects mRNA inside cells before purification.
The company said the approach is designed to reduce immunogenicity and provide high protein expression while avoiding double-stranded RNA contamination that can cause unwanted immune activation.
External evaluations showed no detectable double-stranded RNA contamination, reduced cytokine activation and higher protein expression compared with synthetic mRNA in human immune-cell assays, according to Sensible.
Dr. Vishal Gulati of Recode Ventures and Joel Schoppig of Oxford Science Enterprises will join Sensible’s Board as part of the financing.
KEY QUOTES:
“mRNA transformed vaccines, but we believe its greatest potential lies in therapeutics. The field still relies largely on synthetic manufacturing technology developed more than 40 years ago. We are taking a fundamentally different approach, using living cells to produce naturally modified mRNA while reducing the cost and supply-chain constraints of conventional production. With this financing, we can scale our platform and expand mRNA into therapeutic applications requiring high or repeated dosing that have historically been limited by cost.”
Miroslav Gasparek, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Sensible Biotechnologies
“The promise of computational drug design depends on connecting it to biology and the practical work of making a medicine. How mRNA is made can shape how it behaves, so manufacturing matters from the very start of developing a treatment. Sensible brings design and cell-based production together, giving the team an opportunity to improve both the performance of mRNA and the economics of making it. We led this round because we believe in the team’s ability to build a company that helps pharmaceutical partners develop a broader range of mRNA medicines. With this investment, Sensible can advance toward clinical-grade production and expand the pharmaceutical partnerships that will drive its commercial growth.”
Joel Schoppig, Partner at Oxford Science Enterprises and Board Member at Sensible
“The next wave of mRNA medicines reaches far beyond vaccines: in vivo CAR-T, gene editing, and cancer immunotherapy. Yet much of that promise is capped by the limits of today’s mRNA design and manufacturing. Sensible has rebuilt the process from first principles. Its cell-based platform brings design, optimisation and manufacturing into a single loop, producing purer, low-immunogenicity mRNA at industrial scale. That is why we backed Sensible from its earliest round.”
Dr. Vishal Gulati, FMedSci, Managing Partner at Recode Ventures and Board Member at Sensible
“Sensible represents exactly that kind of scientific innovation that can help shape the future of medicine. Its work to develop a new generation of mRNA technologies reflects the strength of biotechnology innovation emerging from Slovakia and Europe. We are proud to support Sensible as it advances pioneering science with the potential to enable better medicines, expand the possibilities of mRNA therapeutics, and ultimately improve the lives of patients around the world. Such support is an investment Europe truly needs not only in scientific progress, but in our ability to lead the next generation of biotechnology and healthcare innovation.”
Kamil Šaško, Minister of Health of the Slovak Republic
