Vernal Biosciences Raises $21 Million to Accelerate mRNA Manufacturing Growth

COLCHESTER, Vt., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vernal Biosciences, a technology-leading mRNA manufacturer and formulator of LNP-mRNA, announced today the completion of a $21 million financing to fully integrate its mRNA manufacturing solutions. The round was led by Ampersand Capital Partners and Dynamk Capital, with existing investors Alloy Therapeutics and ATUM participating. The round also included a new investment from Charles River Laboratories, Inc. Vernal offers a complete range of mRNA-related services and products ranging from sequence design and screening support, scaled-down and scaled-up manufacturing of high purity mRNA and LNP-mRNA, platform process development technologies, and ultimately GMP manufacturing.

"We are excited to offer an advanced staging ground of platform processes and analytical technologies to our clients for all of their projects, clinical included," said Christian Cobaugh, Vernal CEO and Founder. He emphasized, "While quality and capabilities matter more than ever, huge gaps remain in the capacity of high purity mRNA products and services. Our deep expertise and proven abilities in mRNA technologies, along with the wealth of experience in building success stories in the CRO and CDMO space that our investors bring, will enable Vernal to successfully transform this field, from concept to clinical trials. It is time to usher in a new era where under a single contract, we can design sequences, manufacture plasmid templates and mRNA, formulate LNP-mRNA, and provide release testing of drug products."

Christian will be joined on Vernal's board by existing board member, Errik Anderson of Alloy Therapeutics, and new board members, David Anderson of Ampersand, and Gustavo Mahler of Dynamk. Under the leadership of Dr. Cobaugh, Vernal is equipped with a singular focus on mRNA. The funds from this financing will support Vernal's growth including the construction of full GMP capabilities scheduled to become operational in late 2023.

David Anderson, General Partner with Ampersand added, "Ampersand is excited to partner with Christian and the Vernal team to help bring Vernal to the next level as a full-service CDMO servicing the mRNA field. Our recent experiences building advanced therapy CDMOs such as BrammerBio, ArrantaBio and Vibalogics, position Ampersand as an excellent partner for Vernal at this stage in the company's growth."

"There is a strong market demand for fully integrated providers of mRNA products and services," said Gustavo Mahler, Venture Partner at Dynamk Capital. "Dynamk looks forward to supporting the Vernal team in growing into one of the leading CDMOs in the mRNA space."

About Vernal Biosciences

Vernal Biosciences provides mRNA and LNP-mRNA manufacturing services to democratize the use of mRNA for all use cases ranging from drug discovery to clinical development across all use cases such as gene editing and regulation, cellular programming, vaccines, mRNA replacement, oncology, autoimmune, and protein degradation. Please visit www.vernal.bio for more information.

About Ampersand Capital Partners

Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle market private equity firm with more than $2 billion of assets under management dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston and Amsterdam, Ampersand leverages its unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of the firm's core healthcare sectors. Additional information about Ampersand is available at ampersandcapital.com.