Rani Therapeutics, the developer of a pill designed to replace injectable drug delivery for patients suffering from chronic diseases, announced that it has raised $53 million to invest in manufacturing in preparation for human clinical trials. This investment brings the total raised to $142 million in funding.

New investors include GeneScience Pharmaceuticals, one of the top biopharmaceuticals companies in China; Shire, the global biotech company focused on rare diseases; Bossa Ventures, and Cathay Venture, Inc. They join GV, the investment arm of Alphabet Inc., Novartis, AstraZeneca, Ping An Ventures, Virtus Ventures, among others who have previously invested in the company.

"Rani's pill has the potential to be a major breakthrough for drug delivery and could make a significant impact across multiple markets," said Dr. Lei Jin, CEO at GeneScience Pharmaceuticals. "We're delighted to back the company at this exciting time, and to work with them to bring this ground-breaking approach to fruition."

The RaniPill™ could change the way that drugs such as basal insulin, Humira™, Avonex®, human growth hormone and many others are delivered. Each application represents a multi-billion dollar market, serving over 200 million worldwide patients suffering from diabetes, arthritis, psoriasis, hemophilia and other chronic diseases.

"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," said Mir Imran, Chairman, CEO and founder of Rani Therapeutics. "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."

To further support the move to clinical trials, Rani has brought on Ray Diradoorian, former global head of manufacturing for Allergan, as a consultant, and has hired Wilfredo Ortiz to lead day-to-day manufacturing operations. Wilfredo brings more than 20 years in manufacturing operations management including serving as Plant Manager of Allergan's Fall River, Massachusetts site and Director of Operations for the company's Waco, Texas plant, Allergan's largest aseptic manufacturing site in the U.S. In addition to bolstering the internal team, Rani is working with a manufacturing automation company to help develop the aseptic manufacturing line needed for human testing.  

"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," commented David Pyott, former Chairman and CEO of Allergan, and a member of Rani's board of directors

About Rani Therapeutics

Rani Therapeutics has developed a pill to radically improve the lives of hundreds of millions of patients suffering from chronic conditions, by replacing painful injections. The RaniPill™ is a safe and pain-free alternative for painful injections, eliminating one of the biggest obstacles to patient compliance. With its breakthrough pill, Rani has changed the way that pharmaceutical companies deliver and patients administer much-needed drugs.

The research and technology behind Rani Therapeutics came out of InCube Labs, a multi-disciplinary life sciences R&D lab focused on breakthrough medical innovations. Rani and InCube are founded by Mir Imran, a prolific medical inventor, entrepreneur and investor. Mir has founded more than 20 life sciences companies, generating billions of dollars in shareholder value, and holds more than 400 issued and pending patents in the U.S.