Date: 2014-08-05
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: microRNAs as biomarkers for multiple sclerosis
Company: Regulus Therapeutics (USA - CA) BiogenIdec (USA - MA)
Therapeutic area: Autoimmune diseases - Neurodegenerative diseases
Type agreement:
Action mechanism:
Disease: multiple sclerosis
Details: * On August 5, 2014, Regulus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company leading the discovery and development of innovative medicines targeting microRNAs, announced that it has entered into a new collaboration agreement with Biogen Idec to expand its research focused on identifying microRNAs as biomarkers for multiple sclerosis (MS) under its Regulus microMarkers™ division. The new research will focus on profiling a large number of whole blood samples from a cohort of MS patients who have been treated with a Biogen Idec MS therapy to identify potential microRNA signatures. In January 2014, Regulus established a new division, RegulusmicroMarkers™, to support the expansion of its innovative biomarkers platform which is utilized for its therapeutic pipeline, collaborators\' and strategic partners\' programs. RegulusmicroMarkers™ utilizes a highly reproducible, proprietary technology platform to extract, profile, and analyze microRNAs from small volumes of blood (plasma, serum or whole blood) to differentiate disease from healthy patient samples and to identify microRNAs as potential biomarkers for disease. Regulus has profiled approximately 3,000 clinical samples in a wide variety of disease states including multiple sclerosis, chronic kidney disease, fatty liver, rheumatoid arthritis and others.
Regulus and Biogen Idec began their collaboration in August 2012 to identify potential microRNA biomarkers in MS. Regulus used its proprietary technology platform to extract, profile, and analyze microRNAs from small volumes of blood (plasma, serum or whole blood) to profile over 400 serum samples from MS patients and compare those profiles against the profiles of healthy volunteers. The results of these experiments helped define the scope of the research under the new collaboration agreement, which resulted in a termination of the August 2012 agreement.
Financial terms: Regulus will receive $2M upfront and is eligible for future payments upon achievement of certain milestones related to the identification of potential microRNA signatures.
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