Rani Robotic Pill Raises $53M Ahead of Clinical Trials

Rani Therapeutics has raised $53 million to support manufacturing as it gears up for clinical trials of its Rani robotic pill.

New investors like GeneScience Pharmaceuticals and Shire (NSDQ:SHPG) joined existing investors like Alphabet’s GV, Novartis (NYSE:NVS) and AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN). Rani has now raised $142 million in total funding.

Rani is an InCube Lab spin-out that started in 2012. The Rani robotic pill delivers an intestinal injection of medicine without exposing the drugs to digestive enzymes.

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The pharmaceutical industry has long searched for a replacement for drug injections. Needles can be scary, which causes many patients to not take their medication. The Rani robotic pill is being positioned as just that – an alternative to needle-based injections. The Rani robotic pill travels through the stomach and eventually reaches the small intestine, where it injects the drug directly into the intestinal wall.

“The addition of new top tier investors is great validation not only of Rani’s potential, but of the success we’ve already experienced in pre-clinical testing,” founder, chairman & CEO, Mir Imran, said in prepared remarks. “Building on our early achievements, we are now focused on manufacturing the RaniPill in order to move towards our next major milestone of human clinical trials, which we expect to enter within the next year.”

Rani has tapped former global head of manufacturing for Allergan (NYSE:AGN), Ray Diradoorian, to serve as a consultant. The company also brought on Wilfredo Ortiz, who previously worked at Allergan, to take charge of manufacturing operations.

“With this latest funding from key global investors, and the appointment of senior manufacturing executives, Rani couldn’t be better positioned to advance a long-awaited solution for hundreds of millions of chronic disease sufferers,” former Allergan chairman & CEO David Pyott added.