Servier selects third cardiovascular target triggering the first milestone under the collaboration
SURESNES, France, and BOULDER, Colo., May 23, 2013 – Servier, a privately-run French research-based pharmaceutical company and a major player in Europe and emerging markets having expertise in the development of treatments for cardiovascular diseases, and miRagen Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative microRNA-based therapeutics, announced today that Servier has elected to add a new target as part of its existing agreement for advancing the research, development and commercialization of microRNA-based drug candidates for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. With this selection, Servier and miRagen now have three microRNA programs under development.
“Our selection of a third target is indicative of the strength of our partnership with miRagen, as well as our shared commitment to develop microRNA-based therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Jean-Paul Vilaine, Head of Servier’s Cardiovascular Research Unit. “We look forward to our continued collaboration to advance promising drug candidates.”
For Dr. Jean-Philippe Seta, Chief Executive Officer of Servier, “Micro-RNA is now the gateway to acting at the deepest level of gene expression regulation, with exciting [click to continue…]
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Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Anticancer Drug MRX34 Underway
AUSTIN, TX (May 13, 2013)– Mirna Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering microRNA (miRNA) replacement therapies for cancer,announced today that it has initiated a Phase 1 clinical study of MRX34, the first miRNA to advance into a human clinical trial for cancer. The Phase 1 trial is being conducted in patients with unresectable primary liver cancer or metastatic cancer with liver involvement.
“The initiation of this clinical trial is a landmark event for cancer drug development,” said Paul Lammers, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Mirna Therapeutics. “Scientists at Mirna were among the first to elucidate the promise of tumor suppressor miRNAs as new therapeutic candidates. The preclinical profile of MRX34 across a range of tumors strongly suggests that miRNA-based therapeutics may represent a potent, new class of anticancer drugs working through a mechanism that affects multiple oncogenic pathways simultaneously.”
“Results from this initial clinical trial will be used to evaluate the safety of MRX34, and help us evaluate the potential of this compound for further clinical study,” said Andrew Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., medical oncologist and assistant professor in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and principal investigator [click to continue…]
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- Nominated RG-101 in HCV as First microRNA Candidate for Clinical Development-
- Maintained Strong Financial Position with Over $90 million in Cash-
LA JOLLA, Calif., May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Regulus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLS), a biopharmaceutical company leading the discovery and development of innovative medicines targeting microRNAs, today provided an update on its microRNA therapeutic pipeline under the company’s ‘Road to the Clinic’ strategy and reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2013.
Regulus Continues to Execute on ‘Road to the Clinic’ Strategy:
Nominated RG-101 as First microRNA Candidate for Clinical Development
- Regulus announced today that it has nominated its first microRNA candidate for clinical development, RG-101, a GalNAc-conjugated microRNA antagonist or anti-miR, which targets microRNA-122 (miR-122) for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Regulus is performing additional pre-clinical studies and finalizing development plans for RG-101 in HCV and expects to submit an application with regulatory authorities in early 2014.
- Regulus plans to develop RG-101 independently of its strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The broad strategic alliance between Regulus and GSK remains intact and GSK retains its interest in the miR-122 program in HCV, as miR-122 will remain a Collaboration Target under the alliance. As such, the companies are in the process of amending the Product Development and Commercialization Agreement to clarify that RG-101 is fully owned by Regulus.
“The nomination of RG-101 as our first microRNA candidate for clinical development marks a tremendous milestone for Regulus and represents significant achievement of our initial goals under our ‘Road to the Clinic’ strategy,” said Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., President and CEO of Regulus. “We continue to focus [click to continue…]
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Call for papers for an open special issue on small/microRNAs:
Small RNAs: Revolutionizing the Genomics Landscape
The editors invite researchers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles focused on the use, development, or the application of genomics tools for investigating the role of small RNAs at the whole-genome level. The editors will be interested in review manuscripts that describe biology of noncoding RNAs as well as bioinformatics and computational biology based approaches for analyzing small RNAs datasets.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Small RNAs and microRNAs next-generation sequencing data analysis
- Identification and classification of miRNA genes and targets
- Small RNAs regulatory networksSoftware and tool development for small RNA data analysis
- Comparative evolution of small RNAs
- Small RNAs players in cancer and plant stress responses
Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijg/guidelines/.
Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ijg/rnas/ according to the following timetable:
- Manuscript Due: Friday, 2 August 2013
- First Round of Reviews: Friday, 25 October 2013
- Publication Date: Friday, 20 December 2013
For the full details please see:
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijg/si/431758/cfp/
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