Exiqon Licenses Locked Nucleic Acids for siRNA to Applied Biosystems

Exiqon A/S has announces that it has granted a license to Applied Biosystems to use Exiqon’s proprietary Locked Nucleic Acids (LNA™) in siRNA. The details of the financial terms of the license agreement are not disclosed.

The license agreement with Applied Biosystems fulfills a strategic goal Exiqon had originally set for 2008 to enter in to an agreement with a major tool provider for a license to LNA™.

The proprietary LNA technology offers many more possibilities for developing competitive products than can be pursued by Exiqon. It is therefore an inherent part of Exiqon’s strategy to capitalize on its proprietary LNA technology within a market that Exiqon does not plan to pursue itself through license agreements and partnerships with third parties. One such market segment is siRNA.

Short interfering RNA (or siRNA) molecules are short, gene-specific synthetic molecules, which when introduced into cells or animals, specifically down regulate the genes to which they are targeted. siRNAs comprise a very powerful technique to silence gene expression in cells which allows biomedical researchers to study the molecular effects of modulating expression at the level of individual genes.