Chiron, Ribozyme deal

The companies entered into an R&D agreement for the use of ribozymes to treat and/or diagnose diseases associated with cancer, and cardiovascular, inflammatory and infectious diseases. The first target will be the HIV genome, with four other targets to be named.

The companies will use both gene therapy and traditional delivery approaches to develop therapeutics. The deal expands CHIR’s research program for nucleic acid-based therapies. CHIR said that Ribozyme’s technology is an important additional component when combined with CHIR’s biological technology and potentially with gene therapy vectors of CHIR’s partner Viagene Inc. (VIGN). ...