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Biotech / Medical : Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ALNY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (135)	4/17/2008 12:10:19 PM
From: A.J. Mullen	Respond to of 166

Glaxo and Regulus Ink Deal on Small, Small RNA Posted by Sarah Rubenstein Big Pharma’s getting really interested in really tiny RNA. GlaxoSmithKline has inked a deal with a company called Regulus, a joint venture of Alnylam and Isis that’s doing research in a budding field around something called microRNA. The crux of it, discussed in more detail in this post, is that microRNAs are itty bitty strands of RNA that are involved in protein production within cells. As Regulus CEO Kleanthis Xanthopoulos explains it, they “control the stability of the messenger RNA and its ability to be translated into proteins.” In certain cases, microRNAs can be problematic. For instance, sometimes in tumors, microRNAs are expressed five or 10 times more than normal, Xanthopoulos tells the Health Blog. The company’s idea is to get counts like that back to normal in the hopes that doing so would impede disease. Later on, Regulus also plans to try to develop drugs that would mimic microRNA for cases when more of it — not less — is needed. So, to the Glaxo deal: It means the companies are going to work together to sift through 500 or so microRNAs and narrow down the list to the top four they want to use to create candidates for clinical tests in inflammatory disease, Xanthopoulos says. Regulus already has a relatively short list in mind. This field is still very young, but the deal with a Big Pharma player “tells you the interest that exists in this new area of biology,” he says. And it shouldn’t take an eternity to get some hints at whether the approach might work. He anticipates having clinical candidates in the next three years. Permalink \| Trackback URL: blogs.wsj.com