Prokarium, a subsidiary of Riyadh Valley Investment Company, which specializes in biosciences and drug exploration and specialized in the field of oncology for microbial immunotherapy, has announced the closing of a US$30 million funding round. This follows the announcement of a partnership with the American company Ginkgo Bioworks to develop a bacterial platform to provide treatment options using RNA.
Prokarium has also announced that Dr. Adrian Hayday, the Founding Chairman of Peter Gorer Department of Immunology at King’s College London and currently the Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, and Dr. Sam Chang, Chief Surgeon at Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Centre, have joined the scientific advisors, bringing deep expertise in immunology, immunotherapy and exceptional clinical expertise in clinical trials.
Dr. Khalid bin Saad Al-Saleh, CEO of Riyadh Valley Company, commented, “Prokarium Company is one of the investment portfolio companies of Riyadh Valley Company – the investment arm of King Saud University – and it was invested in after the company’s success in occupying a leading position in the vital sciences and because of its deep experience in developing medicines and vaccines, and the company has registered dozens of patents in that, and this funding round enables Prokarium to continue these efforts and serve humanity by providing a new generation of cancerous tumors treatments.
Kristine Albright, CEO of Prokarium, said this will fund the oncology program in clinical trials this year and enable the Prokarium Bacteria platform to absorb new therapeutic loads by partnering with Genko Bioworks and leveraging its ability to engineer and improve strains.
The investment of Riyadh Valley Company in Prokarium comes within the company’s strategy to invest locally and internationally to build a balanced investment portfolio that achieves the objectives of King Saud University and contributes to knowledge development of Saudi Arabia economy.