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news.To discover and develop new RNA-based medicines to treat rare genetic disorders
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Santaris has signed a multi-year worldwide strategic alliance with Shire to discover and develop new RNA-based medicines to treat rare genetic disorders.
The alliance will use Santaris’ proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform to identify and select drug candidates against certain targets.
Reportedly, 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 will receive initial early stage payments of $6.5m covering technology access, exclusivity for three pre-defined targets and initial discovery funding, and an additional early stage payment of $13.5m upon 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.
In addition to these initial payments, Santaris will receive funding for all additional discovery activities to be performed under the contract and payments on Shire’s nomination of up to two additional targets. It will also be eligible to receive development, regulatory and sales related milestone payments of up to $72m, for each of the potential five drug candidates and customary royalties on the worldwide sales of commercialized products arising from the alliance.
Soren Tulstrup, president and CEO of Santaris, said: 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.
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, he added.