Can a new pro­tein bring RNA drugs where they can't reach? J&J vet Sue Dil­lon's Io­n­is-part­nered biotech gets $88M to prove yes

Sue Dil­lon re­mem­bers the un­cer­tain­ty when she first left J&J to start her own biotech around a new kind of mol­e­cules called cen­tyrins.

J&J had al­ready li­censed the tech, which was de­vel­oped by her co-founder Karyn O’Neil at the phar­ma gi­ant’s Cen­tyrex unit, to two com­pa­nies for use in CAR-T and ra­dio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals. But Aro Bio­ther­a­peu­tics want­ed to ap­ply it to what was still a nascent area: RNA med­i­cines, en­com­pass­ing both an­ti­sense oligonu­cleotides and siR­NA ther­a­pies.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER