Santaris Pharma and Shire to develop RNA-based medicines for genetic disorders

UK drugmaker Shire and Santaris Pharma of Denmark have entered a multi-year research collaboration using Santaris Pharma's proprietary locked nucleic acid (LNA) platform to identify drug candidates against certain targets for the treatment of rare genetic disorders.

The agreement will enable Shire to build on its human genetic therapies business.

Santaris Pharma said it would receive initial payments of US$6.5m and another US$13.5m once it has completed early studies. The initial collaboration is for two years; Shire has an option to extend it for up to two additional years.

The company is eligible a further US$72m for each of the potential five drug candidates in development and regulatory milestone payments, and will receive a royalty on sales of commercialised products arising from the alliance.

The LNA drug platform creates synthetic chemical versions called LNAs of the normal nucleic acid building blocks of ribonucleic acids (RNA). These LNAs improve the drug-like qualities of resulting therapeutics, called oligonucleotides, by boosting resistance to metabolism, increasing half-life and improving tissue uptake.

"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," said Soren Tulstrup, president and chief executive of Santaris Pharma. "This fourth partnership follows only seven months after the announcement of our new strategic alliance with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals."

Santaris Pharma also has alliances with GlaxoSmithKline and Enzon Pharmaceuticals.