Santaris Pharma A/S, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical
company focused on the research and development of mRNA and microRNA targeted therapies,
and Pfizer Inc., today announced that the companies have expanded their
collaboration directed to the development and commercialization of RNA-targeted
medicines using Santaris Pharma A/S Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform.
Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Pfizer will make
a payment of $14 million for access to Santaris Pharma A/S LNA technology for
the development of RNA-targeted drugs. Santaris Pharma A/S is eligible to
receive milestone payments of up to $600 million as well as royalties on sales of
products that may be developed for up to 10 new RNA targets selected by Pfizer.
The newly expanded alliance builds on the original
collaboration formed in January 2009 between Santaris Pharma A/S and Wyeth,
which was acquired by Pfizer Inc. Under the terms of the original
collaboration, Santaris Pharma A/S received an upfront payment of $7 million in
cash and Wyeth made a $10 million equity investment in Santaris Pharma A/S.
Santaris Pharma A/S continues to be eligible to receive milestones and royalties
under the original alliance. Pfizer has advanced several programs under the
original collaboration and reached a number of early milestones since the
inception of the collaboration.
“The expansion of our collaboration with Santaris
Pharma A/S demonstrates our strategic intention to partner with innovative
biopharm/biotech companies to explore novel drug design technologies as a
potential source for breakthrough therapeutics,” said Mikael Dolsten,
President of Worldwide Research and Development at Pfizer. He added, “We
have been encouraged by the progress of our oligonucleotide collaboration with
Santaris Pharma and are eager to explore this expanded partnership for
potential additional LNA-based drug projects.”
The Santaris Pharma A/S LNA Drug Platform is the only RNA
technology with both mRNA and microRNA targeted drugs in clinical trials,
demonstrating the broad utility of the proprietary platform. The unique
combination of small size and high affinity achievable with Santaris Pharma A/S
LNA technology allows LNA-based drugs to potently and specifically inhibit RNA
targets in different tissues without the need for complex delivery vehicles.
“The expanded alliance with Pfizer is a result of our
successful collaboration over the last two years and provides further evidence
that our LNA Drug Platform is rapidly becoming the technology-of-choice for
partners interested in developing RNA-targeted medicines,” said Soeren
Tulstrup, President and CEO of Santaris Pharma A/S. “The LNA Drug Platform
is well positioned to deliver viable drug candidates today, and we are excited
to expand our relationship with Pfizer to pursue our goal of making
RNA-targeted drugs for important diseases a reality.”
