Startup Laronde Developing Endless RNA (eRNA)

Venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering has unveiled Laronde, a startup platform company developing a novel, proprietary form of RNA they are calling “endless RNA” (eRNA). eRNA can be programmed to express therapeutic proteins inside the body. Flagship initially committed $50 million to support the development of Laronde’s platform and initial pipeline of new medicines.

eRNA technology was invented at Flagship Labs by a team led by Flagship Pioneering General Partner, Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D., who was also the founding CEO of Laronde. The company began in 2017 as FL50 (the 50th such life science platform developed within Flagship Labs) and has since operated as part of the broader Flagship enterprise. In 2017, the team began to explore the therapeutic applicability of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), naturally abundant in circular form within mammalian cells. The exploration led to the invention of eRNA, a proprietary, closed-loop RNA construct engineered to be translatable.

Having no free ends, eRNAs are not recognized by the innate immune system or exonuclease enzymes, and are highly stable, enabling a prolonged therapeutic effect. In addition, the therapeutic protein expression capabilities of eRNA are modular and programmable. Switching the eRNA “protein-coding cassette” directs the body to make different peptides, enzymes, antibodies, channels, and receptors, both inside and outside of the cell.

“With Endless RNA we have created a new class of medicines that can be programmed to persistently express therapeutic proteins in the body, at tunable levels, without generating an unwanted immune response, in a continuously redosable manner, with very simple delivery. The possible applications of this platform are very broad, with applications that have the potential to replace or augment many drug modalities currently in use,” said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, co-founder of Laronde, and Chairman of its Board of Directors.

To support the development and launch of multiple eRNA-based medicines, Laronde plans to build a modular and scalable eRNA Gigabase Factory to accommodate the clinical and commercial manufacture of up to 100 products and drug programs in the next 10 years. The company expects to hire more than 200 people over the next two years to support the advancement of its programs and platform. (Source: Flagship Pioneering Website, 10 May, 2021)