Sonire Therapeutics awarded $13M NEDO grant to advance HIFU pancreatic cancer treatment
What's the deal? Sonire Therapeutics, a US-based clinical-stage medical device company, has been awarded approximately $13 million in non-dilutive funding through Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDODealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →) Deep-Tech Startups Support Program. The grant will support the commercialisation of its ultrasound-guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) therapy platform for pancreatic cancer treatment.
The funding, awarded to Sonire Therapeutics KK — the company's Japan-based group entity — will go toward manufacturing scale-up, regulatory approval in Japan, expansion into additional clinical indications, and acceleration of US clinical development.
Why now? Sonire has built significant momentum. It recently initiated the SUNRISE-II clinical trial in the US, raised $18 million in Series A financing, and completed patient enrolment in SUNRISE-I, a randomised controlled trial in Japan evaluating its HIFU system's safety and feasibility for pancreatic cancer.
The NEDO award marks the company's progression to the programme's most advanced commercialisation stage — the DMP phase — after clearing earlier STS and PCA phases. The timing aligns with Sonire's push to bridge the gap between clinical development and market readiness in both Japan and the US.
What could go wrong? Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers, with a five-year survival rate of roughly 13%. While Sonire's non-invasive approach — using real-time ultrasound guidance to ablate tumours without general anaesthesia — addresses a genuine unmet need, the company still faces regulatory hurdles in two major markets and the challenge of scaling manufacturing for a novel medical device.
The signal: Sonire Therapeutics, classified as a breakout-stage company on Dealroom, is stacking non-dilutive government funding on top of its $18 million Series A — a capital strategy that lets it advance a complex medical device platform across two regulatory jurisdictions without further equity dilution. NEDO's backing, as a government and non-profit investor, underscores a wider pattern of public bodies stepping in to de-risk deep-tech ventures in oncology, where long development timelines and manufacturing complexity often deter traditional venture capital.
Read more: PR Newswire
