Company obtains rights related to Dicer-Substrate from City of Hope.
Nastech Pharmaceutical entered into a license agreement with City of Hope for rights to Dicer-Substrate RNAi intellectual property and technology. Nastech obtained exclusive rights to five undisclosed targets selected by the company. It also received broad nonexclusive rights to siRNAs directed against all mammalian targets subject to certain City of Hope limitations.
“The Dicer-Substrate RNAi technology may help to accelerate the development of a new class of therapeutics,” says John Rossi, Chair, Division of Molecular Biology, City of Hope. Dicer-Substrate technology may enable the development of siRNAs that could have improved pharmacological properties important for drug development and delivery when compared to conventional, first-generation RNAi technology, points out Nastech.
“The agreement with City of Hope for rights to this unique RNAi technology and intellectual property has the potential to offer a better way of developing potent siRNA therapeutics than the conventional method that is being widely used by other companies,” states Steven C. Quay, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman, President and CEO of Nastech. “In combination with Nastech’s other intellectual property, we are in the unique position of being able to access all fundamental IP surrounding RNAi required for us to drive our siRNA therapeutics programs forward.”
