Mirus, Roche deal

Roche will acquire RNAi company Mirus for $125 million in cash. The deal, which is expected to close this half, gives Roche Mirus’ Dynamic PolyConjugates (DPCs) for formulating siRNA into nanoparticles and an RNAi research site in Madison. Roche plans to use the technology to develop therapeutics for metabolic, respiratory and cancer indications. Roche has undisclosed RNAi compounds in preclinical testing.

Roche also gains Mirus’ Pathway IV for IV delivery of plasmid DNA to targeted limb muscle, and a catheter-mediated intravascular delivery to liver cells using non-viral vectors. Mirus’ lead therapeutic is MyoDys, a plasmid DNA encoding the full-length human dystrophin gene, which has completed Phase I testing to treat Duchenne/Becker’s muscular dystrophy. MyoDys is partnered with Transgene S.A. (Euronext:TNG, Strasbourg, France). Mirus also has preclinical Pathway IV gene therapy programs in peripheral ischemia and anemia, which encode an angiogenic factor and erythropoietin, respectively. Roche will divest Mirus’ transfection reagent business into a stand-alone company called Mirus Bio LLC. ...