Life Technologies Signs Licensing Agreement with Suzhou Ribo Life Sciences
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Life Technologies Corporation announces a licensing agreement granting Suzhou Ribo Life Sciences (Ribo) the exclusive rights to develop and manufacture siRNA therapeutics in China using Life's Invivofectamine® Rx delivery technology. Ribo will formulate proprietary siRNA molecules in combination with Invivofectamine® Rx to create a new platform designed to address human diseases with high unmet medical need in the Chinese healthcare system.
Under the agreement, Ribo will receive a license to develop a robust pipeline of Invivofectamine® Rx-based therapeutics, for each of which Life Technologies is entitled to receive milestone and royalty payments.
Currently available only through Life Technologies' out-licensing program (outlicensing@lifetech.com), Invivofectamine Rx marks a significant advancement in the company's in vivo transfection product line. The novel formulation uses a proprietary chemical structure to dramatically increase the potency 100-fold and decrease the toxicity of the formulated RNAi compound. The increased therapeutic window makes the solution particularly well-suited for use in in vivo applications.
"We are extremely pleased to announce this partnership with Life Technologies," said Zicai Liang, Ph.D., chief executive officer and founder of Ribo and the Kunshan RNAi Institute. "Adding Life's Invivofectamine Rx formulation technology into our development efforts will significantly increase our ability to bring new siRNA therapeutics to Chinese patients with unmet medical needs. We look forward to bringing our first Invivofectamine Rx-based program targeting Hepatitis-B into the clinic in a relatively short period of time."
The Chinese government has identified siRNA therapeutics as one of the few critical emerging technologies in which it wants to have a dominant presence. To help meet this objective, the government is nearing completion on the construction of a new, 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Kunshan, China for Ribo Life Sciences and the Kunshan Institute of siRNA.
"Dr. Liang is a premier siRNA expert in China and his Kunshan RNAi Institute is recognized as one of the world's leading consortiums of academic, industry and government efforts in the world to advance siRNA technology," said Alan Sachs, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer and head of global research at Life Technologies. "In our continued effort to deliver game-changing products and technologies to the world's top medical researchers, we are pleased to partner with Dr. Liang and Suzhou Ribo Life Sciences. Invivofectamine Rx is a great example of the type of technology we will continue to license around the world as we expand our commitment to clinical research customers."
