The government of Japan has inducted Sonire Therapeutics’ Japan-based group into an innovation programme, along with equipping the company with a $13m grant to support the development of Suizenji, an ultrasound-based system for pancreatic cancer treatment.
The funds for Sonire Therapeutics KK, which is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan but also has a presence in the US, originate from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation’s (NEDO) Deep-Tech Startups Support (DTSU) programme. Comparable to European financing initiatives, such as InvestEU, the Japanese agency supports deep technology companies, helping them bridge the gap between development and commercialisation by providing support across the product development lifecycle towards regulatory approval and market adoption.
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Sonire said the funding, which follows its completion of an $18m Series A financing round in April 2026, will support advancement in areas including manufacturing scale-up, regulatory approval activities in Japan, expansion into additional clinical indications, and acceleration of its ongoing US clinical development efforts surrounding Suizenji.
CEO of Sonire Therapeutics, Tohru Satoh, said: “We are honoured to have been selected for NEDO’s DTSU.
“This funding will help accelerate our clinical development, regulatory activities, manufacturing readiness, and commercialisation efforts in both Japan and the United States, bringing us closer to making this technology available to patients worldwide.”
Suizenji is a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) platform that combines real-time imaging guidance with a robot-assisted positioning platform for the thermal ablation of cancerous tumours. Having obtained a breakthrough device designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2024, the platform is currently under evaluation in the SUNRISE-I trial (NCT05601323) in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer.
Comparing HIFU with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone, SUNRISE-I has enrolled patients from seven Japanese hospitals. Prior to this study, an academic-led study of Suizenji using a prototype HIFU system demonstrated a 66% disease control rate in patients with advanced or refractory pancreatic and biliary tract cancers in a sonodynamic therapy (SDT) setting.
Meanwhile, Sonire recently initiated SUNRISE-II (NCT07033689). Led by Stanford University, the study will evaluate Suizenji in patients with unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Sonire’s HIFU system represents just one of the emergent non-invasive modalities for pancreatic cancer treatment. Novocure’s Optune Pax device for locally advanced pancreatic cancer treatment obtained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in February 2026, representing the first clearance by the agency in this indication since Eli Lilly’s Gemzar (gemcitabine) chemotherapy drug in 1996. Pancreatic cancer has historically been extremely difficult to treat, with overall survival rate remaining low.
Indicated for concomitant use alongside gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel, Optune Pax delivers tumour-treating electric fields (TTFields) via arrays worn on the abdomen, targeting the electrical properties of cancer cells to disrupt processes critical for cancer cell division and survival.
