The Munich-based Ethris GmbH is a leading company in the development of mRNA therapies. After its collaboration with the biotech company Shire in 2012, the British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca also wants to cooperate with Ethris. AstraZeneca’s biopharmaceutical branch MedImmune in Gaithersburg (USA) will be the contractual partner.

Cooperation with AstraZeneca strengthens Ethris’ leading role

The new licence agreement underlines Ethris leading position in mRNA therapies. “This cooperation connects our proprietary technology with AstraZeneca’s and MedImmune’s world-class expertise in respiratory diseases, the development of biologicals and commercialisation.”, says Carsten Rudolph, CEO of Ethris. Additional to the advance payment of 25 million Euros, further payments for research and development, as well as market launch and sales dependent bonuses have been stipulated. “We are happy to cooperate with Ethris, who are worldwide leaders thanks to their platform for mRNA therapeutics to combat lung disease. This cooperation complements our area of respiratory diseases with new approaches to influence disease mechanisms. These methods are not achievable with other approaches in our pipeline.”, Bahija Jallal from MedImmune explains.

RNA therapy against lung disease

With its exclusive SNIM®RNA technology, Ethris wants to develop medication to prevent lung disease such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis together with AstraZenecas biotech units MedImmune and Innovative Medicines (IMED). The mRNA therapeutics give coded instructions to the cells via genetic code, whereby cells produce certain proteins which act to fight the disease. With the Ethris technology, specific proteins are being replaced, inhibited and augmented in the lungs, which are involved with the degree of severity of respiratory diseases. Furthermore, mRNA therapeutics may also offer new possibilities to control disease progression or the symptoms.

GO-Bio success story continues

Ethris was founded by researchers at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University (LMU) Munich in 2009. In 2011, Rudolph was among the winners of the GO-Bio competition with his idea to develop new RNA biopharmaceuticals for regenerative medicine. Ethris GmbH has been in operation since the beginning of 2012 and has been supported by QureInvest II fond venture capital of the HS LifeScience in Dusseldorf. Cooperation with Shire, which has been ongoing since 2012, focuses on the treatment of rare diseases. With AstraZeneca they have now accessed another sector in a major way.

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