Date: 2015-10-01
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound:
Company: Sarepta Therapeutics (USA - MA) Murdoch University (Australia)
Therapeutic area: Neurodegenerative diseases - Rare diseases - Genetic diseases - Neuromuscular diseases
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism:
Disease: multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy
Details: * On October 1, 2015, Sarepta Therapeutics announced a four year collaborative research agreement to establish the Sarepta Translational Laboratory with Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. The Laboratory, led by Murdoch University professors Steve Wilton, Ph.D. and Sue Fletcher, Ph.D., will explore the applicability of the Company’s phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (PMO) technology for disease targets beyond Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), such as cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy.
The agreement provides the Murdoch University researchers with access to Sarepta’s PMO platform technology, as well as additional funding for researchers and materials. The initial project for the collaboration is anticipated to target multiple sclerosis. As part of the collaborative agreement, Sarepta will have exclusive rights to license technology and/or products resulting from the research projects.
Murdoch University’s Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Andrew Taggart noted that the agreement with Sarepta allows the University’s laboratory to become a pipeline of drug development, and the Sarepta association will facilitate getting the drugs from the laboratory to clinical trials.
The partnership will allow Murdoch researchers from the Centre for Comparative Genomics, Professors Steve Wilton and Sue Fletcher, to build on their research which won them an Australian Museum Eureka Prize in 2013. The researchers were recognized for developing a new drug that works by ‘skipping over’ the faulty part of the gene message in children suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
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