etherna and Dropshot Therapeutics have entered into a strategic collaboration to optimise and accelarate the RNA therapeutic development process.
During this partnership, the two will combine their technology to facilitate the efficient development of multiple new drug candidates across renal and cardiac disease indications.
Under the terms of the agreement, etherna will receive an upfront payment from Dropshot, as well as research funding and milestone payments during the development process.
Tiered royalites will also be available to the biotech following any product launches associated with the platform — with a total of $950m up for grabs.
Precision delivery with LNPs
The popularity of RNA-based therapeutics has increased considerably during the last few years as pharmaceutical companies explore their potential in a range of disease indications.
To deliver these medications to the appropriate location in the body, biotechs and pharma companies alike have had to develop drug delivery devices that can safely offer precision results.
Lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technologies are particularly useful in this context, so etherna has developed a suite of proprietary lipid nanoparticle formulations to facilitate the expression of an RNA therapeutic in a target organ.
Dropshot has been strongly involved in the development of RNA therapies using LNPs, so together the two hope to create novel therapeutics utilising etherna's mRNA and LNP platforms rapidly.
By combining their technologies, the companies hope to address life-altering cardiac and renal diseases with a scalable approach — allowing them to deliver precision medicine to the patients who need it.
CEO of etherna, Bernard Sagaert, commented: “This agreement underscores etherna’s commitment to driving innovation through collaboration,”
“Dropshot’s expertise in heart and kidney disease aligns with etherna’s mission to be a technology leader in the development of nucleic acid-based medicines. etherna aims to empower our partners to create transformative therapeutics and improve patients’ lives."
Marijn Dekkers, CEO of Dropshot, added: “At Dropshot we have been working with etherna for some time evaluating their technology solutions to meet our needs to develop new potential RNA therapeutics."
"We are excited about the collaboration bringing our expertise in cardiac and renal disease biology together with etherna’s mRNA and LNP technology. We look forward to bringing multiple new drug candidates into active development.”