Novartis-partnered RNA start-up launches

Versant Ventures and Novartis have launched Borealis Biosciences. Borealis will develop RNA medicines with a focus on kidney disease. The start-up has $150 million in series A funding from Versant and Novartis and a partnership with the latter. Borealis’s founders have called it “Chinook Therapeutics 2.0”—a nod to the Versant-founded kidney disease firm Novartis bought in 2023.