Sirna Therapeutics Announces Programs in Strategic Research Alliance With GlaxoSmithKline
Thursday May 4, 7:36 am ET
Companies Initiate RNAi-based Therapeutic Effort Against Asthma and RSV
SAN FRANCISCO, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNAI - News), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced that as part of its exclusive, multi-year collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in respiratory diseases, the companies have initiated programs in asthma and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). As part of the respiratory collaboration, the companies also plan to pursue RNAi-based therapeutics against chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and allergic rhinitis. Sirna will provide GSK with optimized and formulated siRNAs against targets for these diseases and GSK will assume all responsibility for the further preclinical and clinical development of compounds that emerge from these programs.
RNA interference (RNAi) is a natural, selective process for turning off genes. Sirna designs and develops short interfering RNA (siRNA) compounds which down regulate the expression of critical proteins responsible for viral replication and pathogenesis. GSK is a world leader in the discovery and development of treatments for respiratory diseases and has a wealth of expertise in inhaled and intranasal drug delivery technologies. Local delivery of siRNA to the respiratory tract will substantially enhance the feasibility of developing successful treatments with this exciting new platform technology.
"Sirna has demonstrated the ability to develop chemically modified and optimized siRNA compounds and then deliver those compounds effectively into the lung with our nanoparticle formulations," stated Barry Polisky, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Sirna. "Further, we have demonstrated that our proprietary approach to targeting the conserved region of a viral genome has resulted in significant viral knockdown in a non-human primate model. With these encouraging results and together with the combined efforts of Sirna and GSK scientific teams, we expect to expedite the development of novel RNAi-based therapies -- those efforts initially focused on asthma and RSV."
Sirna is the first company to file enabling patents for over 250 important mammalian disease targets including respiratory targets such as MMP-13, IL-4, IL-13, VCAM, and ICAM as well as antiviral targets such as RSV. In addition, Sirna has been granted patent claims in the U.K. and has pending claims in the U.S. that broadly cover any siRNA molecule that targets conserved sequences within a virus or a gene. |
