atugen AG announces siRNA therapeutics program

Vancouver and Berlin , 8 February, 2004 - atugen AG, The Gene Silencing Company™, has officially launched a new drug development program based on its stabilized siRNA molecules. The program complements atugen’s internal SignaLink™ pathway dissection and target discovery projects. It is designed to leverage atugen’s accumulated know-how and IP in siRNA gene silencing and oligonucleotide delivery. The potency of siRNA in inhibiting target mRNA and, indirectly, protein expression has been demonstrated to be 10- to 100-fold better than antisense oligonucleotides. Thus, the increased potency of siRNA molecules together with the recent achievements of atugen to stabilize siRNA molecules against degradation by nucleases increase the chances that successful therapeutic applications can be developed.

 

atugen has recently designed novel siRNA molecules which are stabilized against degradation by serum nucleases, thereby overcoming one of the main stumbling blocks to advancing siRNA molecules as therapeutics. atugen’s stabilized siRNA molecules are proprietary (PCT/EP03/08666) and maintain full functionality. Among other things, it describes the use of naturally occurring nucleotide modifications in the stabilization process. The fact that the modified nucleotides are identical to nucleotides already existing in every cell of the human body reduces the risk that therapeutic compounds will have unwanted side effects. This breakthrough discovery received high visibility and an accompanying paper in Nucleic Acids Research (Czauderna et al., NAR 31:2705) was ranked top-rated manuscript of June 2003.

 

Speaking at the Biopartnering North America conference in Vancouver, atugen CSO Klaus Giese said, “We believe that making progress in developing our proprietary siRNA molecules for therapeutic use in various indications with unmet medical needs will be our key value driver in the coming years. We consider both topical and systemic applications as viable options and are now in active discussions with potential development partners for this program.”

 

atugen AG, located in Berlin, Germany, is a technology leader in gene silencing.  The company’s main focus area is the generation of novel therapeutics based on atugen’s proprietary siRNA molecules and expertise in oligonucleotide delivery. In addition, atugen offers its expertise in target validation and drug discovery to high-profile biopharma partners through research alliances and contract research. atugen’s core technologies include proprietary improved synthetic siRNA molecules, vector expression systems for shRNA and Geneblocs® (antisense molecules with low toxicity) amongst other technologies. The competitive advantages of atugen are further strengthened by its superior liposome-based delivery technology which allows transfection of mammalian cells with high efficiency and low toxicity. These technologies are also used to dissect disease-specific signal transduction pathways and to discover drug targets, efforts that thus far have yielded a number of novel, functionally validated targets and one lead molecule for such a target within the PI3-kinase pathway.

 

 

For further information please contact:

atugen AG

André Lochter

Tel: +49 30 9489 2804

Fax: +49-30 9489 2801

lochter@atugen.com

 

Media Contact

Fiona Brown, Northbank Communications

Tel: +44 (0)20 7886 8155

Fax: +44 (0)20 7886 8151

f.brown@northbankcommunications.com