A Falls Church-based pharmaceutical company has raised $45 million since going public last week, surpassing its original goal.
Retension Pharmaceuticals Inc., a 12-person company whose publicly listed address is a Staples store in Falls Church, hit the stock market on Friday with the goal of raising around $40 million, according to documents filed last week with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
But the company quickly surpassed its original goal, according to the Washington Business Journal, which first reported on the filing. Retension estimates that the proceeds from the initial public offering will fund operations for at least 21 months.
The company wants to use the funds to support the development of an oral medication known as RTN-001 to treat hypertension, or high blood pressure. Down the road, it also hopes to test and apply the drug to other cardiovascular and kidney-related diseases.
Retension’s registered address is 1104 W. Broad St., #1029, in Falls Church — a Staples location. The office supply retailer offers an iPostal1 service that allows customers to make a store their mailing address to securely receive mail and packages.
It’s unclear where exactly the company conducts its research and operations or why the registered address is in Falls Church. Retension did not return a request for comment.
According to its IPO filing, Retension is a spinoff of Redux and was founded in 2023. It began as a subsidiary of that company before signing a sublicense agreement to secure the rights to its hypertension drug.
The SEC filing indicates the company has a dozen full-time employees and doesn’t operate or plan to establish any dedicated manufacturing facilities for its products.
Retension plans to use $18 million of its IPO proceeds to complete a trial for its leading drug candidate. The trial started in October 2025 and results are expected in the first half of 2027. The timeline is slightly behind one that co-founder and CEO Eric Keller provided to WBJ in 2024, when he expected U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval by 2028.
The company had the cash equivalent of $13.5 million as of June 30, but wasn’t generating any revenue at the time, the filing said. It recorded net losses of $1.9 million in 2024 and $6.3 million in 2025.
“We will need substantial additional funding to support our continuing operations and pursue our growth strategy,” the filing says.
