Nippon Shinyaku Enters Alliance with MiNA to Develop Therapies for Rare CNS Diseases

Rare Daily Staff

Japan’s Nippon Shinyaku entered into a joint research agreement with London-based MiNA Therapeutics to develop nucleic acid drugs for the potential treatment of rare diseases of the central nervous system.

The agreement was facilitated by Nippon Shinyaku’s subsidiary NS Pharma’s Innovation Research Partnering team in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Through this agreement, MiNA Therapeutics will provide Nippon Shinyaku RNAa therapeutics, which are oligonucleotides that can increase the transcription of a target gene. Nippon Shinyaku will have the right to exercise an option to exclusively research and develop pharmaceutical candidates derived from the alliance with MiNA Therapeutics by paying lump sum payments and milestones associated with the progress of research and development.

After exercising the option, the company will pay milestones and royalties commensurate with the progress of the development and the sales of the products after launch.

“Through this research alliance with MiNA Therapeutics, we will continue our efforts to apply our nucleic acid drug technology in the central nervous system,” NS Pharma President Tsugio Tanaka said. “NS Pharma is committed to extending our technology as far as it can go to help improve the lives of patients with rare diseases.”

Nippon Shinyaku has been developing compounds in several therapeutic fields, including hematologic malignancies and rare diseases.

Photo: NS Pharma’s Innovation Research Partnering team