The agreement is notable in that it provides an exclusive access to Marina’s SMARTICLES and DiLA2 platforms for a different gene editing field than was announced on February 17, 2016.
This represents the first time that the company’s combined delivery platforms, SMARTICLES and DiLA2 technologies, have been licensed in connection with gene editing. Under terms of the agreement, Marina could receive up to $40 MM in success based milestones. Further details of the agreement were not disclosed.
"With the execution of this gene editing delivery license agreement, the company extends its runway beyond the end of March," stated J. Michael French, president and CEO of Marina Biotech.
"We are now beginning to see the rapid expansion of our delivery technologies in other therapeutic areas and hope to continue to capitalize on our ability to deliver nucleic-acid based compounds. We hope that the unique properties of our delivery technologies provide new therapeutic opportunities to the patient community."
About SMARTICLES Clinical Experience
Clinical achievements with SMARTICLES represent the combined experiences (a total of approximately 130 patients) of licensees ProNAi Therapeutics and Mirna Therapeutics.
ProNAi’s lead product candidate, PNT2258, is designed to target cancers that overexpress BCL2. ProNAi is actively enrolling patients in "Wolverine", a Phase 2 trial evaluating PNT2258 for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and in "Brighton", a Phase 2 trial evaluating PNT2258 for the treatment of Richter’s transformation.
Mirna’s lead product candidate, MRX34, a mimic of naturally occurring microRNA-34 (miR-34), is currently being studied in a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with primary liver cancer, advanced solid tumors and hematological malignancies.
Mirna plans to develop MRX34 as a monotherapy and in combination with other therapeutic modalities, such as targeted therapies and immuno-oncology agents.