Glasgow-based Mironid has raised USD 46 million in a Series B round to advance the clinical development of its lead small molecule candidate for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a hereditary condition affecting an estimated 12 million people worldwide in which half of patients develop kidney failure by age 60.
The round was joined by new investor the Scottish National Investment Bank alongside all returning backers: Roche Venture Fund, Epidarex Capital, Sofinnova Partners, BioGeneration Ventures, and the University of Strathclyde. Proceeds will fund Phase I clinical trials for the company's lead LoAc (Loss of Activation of cAMP) small molecule compound. Mironid previously completed an extended Series A that reached a cumulative GBP 35 million (approximately USD 44 million) by September 2023, when Roche Venture Fund joined the syndicate for the first time.
Mironid was spun out of the University of Strathclyde in 2015, drawing on more than three decades of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) biology research led by Professor Miles Houslay, whose work also involved collaborators at Heriot-Watt University and the University of Glasgow. The foundational science was described in a 2019 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrating, for the first time, that small molecules could allosterically activate long-form PDE4 isoforms.
The lead LoAc compound works by binding to the UCR1/UCR2 regulatory interface of long-form PDE4 enzymes, stabilizing their activated conformation and increasing the breakdown of cyclic AMP (cAMP). In ADPKD, mutations in PKD1 or PKD2 cause chronic elevation of intracellular cAMP, which drives both cyst cell proliferation and fluid secretion into cysts. Because short-form PDE4 isoforms lack the UCR1 domain and are insensitive to this activation, the company said the mechanism may confer isoform selectivity with a potentially favourable tolerability profile. Preclinical data demonstrated reductions in cyst number and kidney volume, the company reported.