Santaris Pharma A/S Forms Strategic Alliance With Shire plc to Develop RNA-Based Medicines for the Treatment of Rare Genetic Disorders
HOERSHOLM,
– Santaris Pharma A/S and Shire plc to Engage in a Multi-Year Research
Program Utilizing Santaris Pharma’s Proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA)
Drug Platform to Identify and Select Drug Candidates Against Certain Targets
for the Treatment of Rare Genetic Disorders
– Santaris Pharma A/S to Receive Significant Upfront Payments, Milestone
Payments and Royalties for Providing Access to its LNA Technology,
Exclusivity for Three Pre-Defined Targets and Funding for Discovery
– Partnership for the Treatment of Rare Genetic Disorders Further
Demonstrates Versatility of the LNA Drug Platform to Develop RNA-Based
Medicines for a Range of Disease Areas Including Metabolic Disorders, Cancer,
Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases
Santaris Pharma A/S, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused
on developing RNA-based drugs targeted to disease-related mRNAs and
microRNAs, today announced a multi-year worldwide strategic alliance with
Shire plc to discover and develop new RNA-based medicines to treat rare
genetic disorders.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090420/344344 )
The alliance will use Santaris Pharma A/S’ proprietary Locked Nucleic
Acid (LNA) Drug Platform to identify and select drug candidates against
certain targets. Shire will be responsible for the selection of appropriate
drug candidates, as well as further development and commercialization of
products arising from the alliance.
Under the terms of the agreement Santaris Pharma A/S will receive initial
early stage payments of
exclusivity for three pre-defined targets and initial discovery funding, and
an additional early stage payment of
completion of certain initial studies. The initial term of the research
collaboration is two years; Shire has an option to extend for up to two
additional years.
“We are delighted that the increasing interest in the LNA Drug Platform
and our Drug Discovery Engine so quickly has materialized in our fourth
strategic alliance. The alliance with Shire demonstrates the broad utility of
Santaris Pharma’s proprietary LNA Drug Platform for developing treatments for
an extensive range of diseases, now also including rare genetic disorders,”
said S0ren Tulstrup, President and CEO of Santaris Pharma A/S. “This fourth
partnership follows only seven months after the announcement of our new
strategic alliance with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and further demonstrates our
leading position in the rapidly evolving RNA-based therapeutics field.”
In addition to these initial payments Santaris Pharma A/S will receive
funding for all additional discovery activities to be performed under the
contract, payments on Shire’s nomination of up to two additional targets, and
will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and sales related
milestone payments of up to
candidates and customary royalties on the worldwide sales of commercialized
products arising from the alliance.
“We are excited to be collaborating with Santaris Pharma A/S, a leader in
the field of RNA-based therapeutics. Its LNA technology and experienced
management team are a good fit for Shire,” said Dr. Whaijen Soo, Senior Vice
President, Research and Development, Shire Human Genetic Therapies. “We look
forward to working closely with the Santaris Pharma A/S team and expanding
our pipeline by discovering and developing new RNA-based medicines to treat
rare genetic disorders.”
Santaris Pharma A/S’ worldwide strategic alliance with Shire to discover
and develop new medicines targeting rare genetic disorders adds to the
growing list of mRNA and microRNA drug discovery and development partnerships
that include Wyeth (delivery of lead candidates against up to ten mRNA and
microRNA targets), GlaxoSmithKline (four viral disease drug candidates) and
Enzon Pharmaceuticals (eight cancer targets successfully delivered).
About Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform
The Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform developed by Santaris Pharma
A/S creates synthetic chemical versions called LNAs of the normal nucleic
acid building blocks of ribonucleic acids (RNA). These LNAs improve the
drug-like qualities of resulting therapeutics, called oligonucleotides, by
boosting resistance to metabolism, increasing half-life and improving tissue
uptake. LNA-based therapeutics demonstrate improved binding affinity to their
target RNA, which increases potency many-fold over other nucleotide
therapeutics. The greater potency of LNA in binding complementary RNA
sequences also allows for the use of significantly shorter LNA
oligonucleotide drugs which can be more effective than previous antisense or
siRNA drugs.
About Santaris Pharma A/S
Santaris Pharma A/S is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused
on developing RNA-based drugs targeted to disease-related mRNAs and
microRNAs. Utilizing the Company’s proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug
Platform and Drug Discovery Engine, Santaris Pharma A/S provides fast and
efficient generation of lead LNA drug candidates. The Company’s own research
and development activities focus on infectious diseases and metabolic
disorders while partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies include a
range of therapeutic areas including cancer, rare genetic disorders and
inflammatory diseases. Santaris Pharma A/S, founded in 2003, is headquartered
in
with Enzon Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Shire
plc. Please visit http://www.santaris.com for more information.
SOURCE Santaris Pharma A/S