Sensible Bio: Building the Production Layer for the Next Generation of Medicine

We are pleased to announce OTB Ventures' investment in Sensible Biotechnologies' $15 million Series A round, which we co-led alongside Oxford Science Enterprises, with participation from Isomer Capital, In-Q-Tel, Recode Ventures, Backed VC, Kaya VC, Civilization Ventures and Y Combinator.

Sensible is Building the Production Layer for the Next Generation of Medicine

mRNA proved itself at global scale during the pandemic and is now moving into cancer treatment, gene therapy and cell therapy. The recent Phase 3 success of Moderna and Merck's personalised mRNA cancer immunotherapy reinforces this shift. Yet every mRNA product approved today is still a preventive vaccine. A key reason lies in how mRNA is manufactured.

All mRNA today comes from a cell-free, chemical process invented forty years ago. IVT-based mRNA manufacturing leaves behind impurities such as double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that the immune system treats as a viral attack. An occasional vaccine dose can tolerate this, but a therapy given repeatedly at high doses cannot. This can be acceptable for a small dose of mRNA required for a vaccine that is supposed to “wake up” immune system. However, it is not acceptable for mRNA therapeutics, where doses of mRNA are significantly higher and often repeated. The process is also expensive and depends on a narrow, fragile supply chain.

Sensible grows mRNA inside engineered cells rather than synthesising it chemically, the same principle that industrialised insulin. The process runs on standard fermentation equipment, avoids the specialised raw materials that current, synthetic method requires, and produces a cleaner molecule - ultimately at a fraction of the cost.

How the Platform Works

Cell-Based Production
Sensible's engineered yeast cells produce mRNA biologically. The cell protects the molecule and breaks down stray RNA, so the final product is free of the contaminant that limits chemical synthesis. Sensible has covered its unique technology by multiple patent applications.

High-throughput screening and AI-enabled sequence designSensible’s technology allows for screening hundreds of mRNA sequences within a single week. Trained on Sensible’s unique data set, Sensible is building a design engine to optimize mRNA output, stability and immune profile.

Standard Fermentation
Production runs in bioreactors, dozens of which are already installed in pharmaceutical facilities worldwide. It requires no specialised raw materials and carries no exposure to concentrated supply chains.

Working with the Industry's Leaders

Leading pharma and biopharma companies are testing Sensible’s technology  across multiple therapeutic applications. Sensible has also partnered with Sartorius on accelerating its clinical-grade mRNA manufacturing capability, and works with NVIDIA on advancing its computational pipeline

The Team

Sensible was founded in 2021 by Miroslav Gasparek and Marian Kupculak, who met at Oxford during the pandemic and started the company through Y Combinator. Miroslav finishes PhD in engineering science from Oxford, studied bioengineering at Imperial College London and has worked at Caltech and Stanford. Marian holds a PhD in biochemistry from Oxford and leads the science. The team of around 55 spans Slovakia, the UK and the US.

Why We Invested

As mRNA moves into therapeutics, Sensible has the potential to become the new technology standard for the field. Thanks to its unique mRNA design and manufacturing, Sensible is not enabling a single drug – rather it could unlock the whole classes of mRNA medicines, partnering across the whole pharma industry. It would also give Europe a resilient source of supply for a class of medicine that currently depends on set of fragile inputs.

This round finances the automation of Sensible’s technology, scale-up from laboratory to industrial volumes, further testing, certification and manufacturing.

Manufacturing has held mRNA back for years. We believe Sensible removes that constraint and becomes the production standard for the next generation of medicines.

Read more: https://endpoints.news/sensible-bio-secures-47m-series-a-for-mrna-therapy-manufacturing-platform/