BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

ethris and AZ partner to develop respiratory mRNA therapies

September 1, 2017 6:01 PM UTC

ethris GmbH (Martinsried, Germany) partnered with AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN) and its MedImmune LLC unit to develop mRNA therapies for respiratory diseases using ethris' stabilized non-immunogenic messenger RNA (SNIM-RNA) technology. ethris will receive €25 million ($29.4 million) up front and is eligible for additional undisclosed milestones under the five-year deal.

AZ and MedImmune have an option to exclusively license resulting products upon completion of predefined research plans for each target. Gita Dittmar, head of corporate development at ethris, told BioCentury the companies have selected an undisclosed number of targets to focus on, with the option to choose additional targets during the partnership. The partners plan to develop therapies to treat asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Dittmar declined to disclose additional details...