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news.Silence Therapeutics and AstraZeneca have extended their ongoing research and development collaboration for siRNA for one more year.
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As per the terms of the agreement, that was signed in July 2007, Silence and AstraZeneca are jointly collaborating in the identification and optimisation of five new siRNA therapeutic molecules addressing respiratory and oncology indications.
Silence’s team is expected to interact with several of AstraZeneca’s operational units including Medimmune in the US and AstraZeneca teams in Sweden, the UK and China to progress the development of the siRNA molecules identified as a result of the collaboration.
The agreement also allows AstraZeneca to retain full responsibility for clinical development and commercialisation of the siRNA molecules.
Silence and AstraZeneca said that apart from the initial GBP7.5m access fee received by Silence in July 2007, the collaboration is expected to further generate up to GBP200m in fees and milestone payments plus royalties on product sales.
Silence and AstraZeneca stated that the terms of the collaboration agreement are independent of Silence’s siRNA delivery collaboration with AstraZeneca which was also extended in April this year.
Philip Haworth, CEO of Silence, said: “Both teams are working closely together to optimise the five therapeutic programs based on Silence’s siRNA technology, in addition to our collaboration investigating new delivery approaches for RNA interference.”
Thomas Eichholtz, vice president of respiratory and inflammation research area at AstraZeneca, said: “We are very pleased with the progress we have made in our collaborative agreement with Silence Therapeutics.”