Oncorena, a Swedish pharmaceutical company focused on developing treatment for advanced stage kidney cancer, is going to receive SEK 66 million (€6,42 million) worth of funding. The funding is mainly going to support the company’s first clinical study.
Kidney cancer is a serious health issue that requires more research focused on it, with around 400,000 patients suffering from it all around the world every year according to the WHO. Even though surgery is an option for treatment if the tumor is detected early and hasn’t yet spread to other organs, it isn’t an option for some patients who are at the advanced stages of the illness.
When surgery isn’t an option for kidney cancer, it is treated with certain drugs that usually have serious side effects since the effects of standard chemotherapy is limited. Therefore, there is a dire need for safe and effective drugs for kidney cancer.
Oncorena is a pharmaceutical company from Sweden that focuses on developing a new type of treatment for kidney cancer in advanced stages. Recently, the company has secured financing for its medical research, which is a phase I / II study with orellanine in patients with advanced kidney cancer undergoing dialysis. The contribution that is worth SEK 66 million (€6,42 million) is done by HealthCap, an existing shareholder of the company, as well as Fåhraeus Startup and Growth AB, two new investors of Oncorena. The company may also receive an extra SEK 94 million (€9,13 million) in the future.
Oncorena is now set out to start its research on orellanine for kidney cancer
With this new funding that it has secured, Oncorena is now going to start its phase I / II study with orellanine, which is a chemical found in mushrooms in the Cortinarius family that has a unique mechanism of action and has been shown to give certain antitumor effects in some preclinical models.
About the funding and the clinical study that they are planning to start, Lars Grundemar, MD, Ph.D., the CEO of Oncorena has stated:
“We are grateful for the capital injection that enables important and necessary clinical results that will be crucial for Oncorena’s continued clinical development of orellanine and new investments in the field of kidney cancer. We also hope that the results from the upcoming clinical study will be of great benefit to patients in the future”
