{"id":18366,"date":"2014-08-05T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T15:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=18366"},"modified":"2016-06-11T12:46:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T16:46:30","slug":"roche-acquiring-rna-medications-biotech-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=18366","title":{"rendered":"Roche Acquiring RNA Medications Biotech Company"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"RNA<\/a>
RNA illustration (Research.gov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5 August 2014. The pharmaceutical company Roche<\/a> is acquiring Santaris Pharma<\/a>, a biotechnology company developing therapies targeting ribonucleic acid or RNA that performs vital genetic functions. Roche is expected to pay as much as $450 million for Santaris, based in H\u00f8rsholm, Denmark.<\/p>\n

Santaris designs therapies focusing on RNA, a fundamental molecular building block in the genetic system that controls chemical activities in cells. The company says its technology, called Locked Nucleic Acid<\/a>, has advantages over earlier attempts to address RNA, including more potency, affinity for wider variety of targets, and smaller molecular size making it better able to interact with target cells.<\/p>\n

Santaris’s lead candidate is miravirsen<\/a>, an inhibitor of microRNA-122 controlling the expression of a gene that helps hepatitis C virus replicate and accumulate in the liver. Because miravirsen targets an enabler of the virus rather than the virus itself, it is believed to be less susceptible to resistance<\/a> from mutations in the virus. The company says in lab tests miravirsen was shown to be active against all six types of hepatitis C virus.<\/p>\n

Miravirsen is being tested in an intermediate-stage clinical trial<\/a> against current drugs considered the standard of care for treating hepatitis C. The 20 patients enrolled in the trial are infected with genotype 1 of the hepatitis C virus, considered the most common, yet most difficult to treat. Current drugs, says the company, are effective in only about half of hepatitis C cases and associated with adverse side effects among some patients.<\/p>\n

Under the acquisition, Roche is paying Santaris $250 million at signing, with another $200 million to be paid upon completion of specified milestones. Roche is expected to continue Santaris’s operations in Denmark under the name Roche Innovation Center Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

Santaris and Roche were already collaborating<\/a> on the discovery of RNA medications, in a deal announced in January. In that agreement, the companies would apply Santaris’s technology to several unspecified disease areas, in return for $10 million up front, and up to $138 million per product in subsequent milestones.<\/p>\n

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