Santaris Pharma, miRagen To Jointly Develop microRNA-Targeted Medicines

miRagen is planning to develop and commercialise single-stranded LNA-based product candidates intended for the treatment of cardiovascular disease by utilizing Santaris Pharma proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform.

As per the terms of the agreement, Santaris Pharma has received a minority equity interest in miRagen, and will be eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties upon achievement of certain development and regulatory milestones.

Soeren Tulstrup, president and CEO of Santaris Pharma, said: “We are pleased that miRagen selected Santaris Pharma as its preferred partner, further validating that our LNA Drug Platform is the technology-of-choice for developing RNA-targeted medicines.

“This collaboration is a prime example of two companies leveraging their unique capabilities in developing RNA-targeted medicines and combined expertise in cardiovascular disease to develop new medicines for life-threatening diseases. Santaris Pharma looks forward to adding more alliances with biotechnology companies to its growing list of partners.”

William Marshall, president and CEO of miRagen, said: “We are very enthusiastic about our collaboration with Santaris Pharma, which provides us with what we believe is best-in-class technology to advance our mission of developing innovative microRNA-based therapies intended for the treatment of patients with cardiovascular and muscle disease.

“Santaris Pharma’s LNA drug platform, which has produced compounds already in the clinic, can help to accelerate our development programs by providing the most effective anti-microRNA chemistry we’ve explored to date.”