Nitto Denko Corporation and Quark Pharmaceuticals have announced a collaboration and licence agreement to develop siRNA therapeutics for the treatment of fibrotic diseases.
The collaboration will benefit from Quark’s RNAi technologies and novel structures, and Nitto Denko’s drug delivery technologies.
According to a press release, the collaboration will have an initial double-digit budget of millions of US dollars to achieve the first investigational new drug for approval by early 2012.
Nitto Denko Officer Kageshi Maruyama said that siRNA would make an important impact in the field of pharmaceutical discovery and development.
Quark was selected due to the superior characteristics of its siRNA structure and chemical modifications, distinguished by causing no immune response, Maruyama said.
