Amplifying oligos

The last five years have seen a steady stream of preclinical deals for antisense, siRNA and mRNA therapies that suggests pharmas are taking the modalities seriously as alternatives to traditional small molecules and antibodies. But interest in microRNAs and aptamers is lagging.

Biogen Inc.’s $1 billion deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc., announced April 20, marked the largest upfront payment for preclinical nucleic acid therapeutics, and signaled a commitment by Biogen to bring the modality into the core of its pipeline. ...