MDRNA this week announced that it has repaid all remaining debt on a $5.5 million loan from General Electric Capital, marking the RNAi drug shop's latest step toward overcoming its financial woes.
"The repayment of this loan removes all liens on our intellectual property, equipment, and other assets, thus providing us maximum flexibility in establishing broad target and therapeutic-based pharma collaborations," MDRNA President and CEO Michael French said in a statement.
MDRNA has struggled under a cash crunch since it was created last summer out of now-defunct nasal drug-delivery firm Nastech Pharmaceutical (see RNAi News, 6/12/2008).
Since that time, the company has worked to realize value from its non-RNAi assets (see RNAi News, 2/5/2009 & 4/2/2009), while out-licensing portions of its technology platform to big pharma (see RNAi News, 2/19/2009 & 3/26/2009).
These and other efforts have helped bolster MDRNA's stock, which closed at $1.63 on Monday, up significantly from a 52-week low of $0.14 a share but still off a 52-week high of $3.55.