Three-year R&D pact for respiratory therapeutics
AstraZeneca is to collaborate with Silence Therapeutics to discover and develop proprietary siRNA molecules against up to five specific targets provided by AZ.
This will generate up to $400 million for Silence in initial access fees, clinical development and commercial milestone payments plus royalties on product sales.
The deal, mainly in the respiratory field, includes an option allowing for targets that could extend the collaboration into other disease areas of interest to AZ.
Silence will license its proprietary siRNA technology to AZ in return for an initial access fee of $15 million, which includes an equity investment of $10 million. The companies will collaborate in the early phase of identification and optimisation of novel siRNA molecules, while AZ takes full responsibility for clinical development and commercialization.
Keywords : AstraZeneca, Silence Therapeutics, Collaboration, Respiratory, siRNA, Biotech, Clinical development,
