Or­biMed-backed biotech looks to chal­lenge Ver­tex in cys­tic fi­bro­sis by 'drug­ging the un­drug­gable'

A new com­peti­tor has emerged from stealth to chal­lenge Ver­tex in cys­tic fi­bro­sis.

Sion­na Ther­a­peu­tics, a Sanofi Gen­zyme spin­out, an­nounced its launch with $111 mil­lion in Se­ries B fi­nanc­ing led by Or­biMed. Formed in late 2019, the com­pa­ny is fo­cused sole­ly on de­vel­op­ing its pipeline of small mol­e­cule treat­ments that, un­like Ver­tex’s four cur­rent­ly ap­proved ther­a­pies, di­rect­ly tar­gets the mu­tat­ed re­gion of CFTR, the pro­tein at the cen­ter of the dis­ease.

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