Having been previously housed in JLABs San Diego, in July 2023 it was announced that Novartis - fairly actively involved with several SBIR firms over several years - had acquired DTx Pjarma for $100,000,000. SBIR involved since 2019, DTx Pharma is structured around utilization of fatty acids to enable the delivery of RNA therapeutics: described as enabling delivery of double stranded miRNA/siRNA therapeutics. This concept of RNA-based therapeutics as the modality of choice has not previously been explored in any depth relative to knowledge of fatty acid receptor pharmacology and knowledge gained from the successful development and commercialization of fatty acid-conjugated peptide therapeutics. The firm's technology is directly addressing what is described as the most important barrier to widespread use of oligos--finding safe and effective ways to get nucleic acids into cells and tissues outside of the liver. It is the objective of DTx Pharma management therefore to undertake development of the technology such that could unleash RNA-based therapeutics as the modality of choice for personalized treatment across most therapeutic areas solving some of the issues that limited previous-generation platforms, including poor pharmacokinetics and insufficient cellular uptake.
