slamming on the rnai brakes, page-10

On the topic of siRNA & then Roche's deal with Santaris in January here's a summary of LNA Platform. So far this year Santaris has inked deals with Roche, GSK & Isarna & prior BMS, Shire, Pfizer, Servier.


"The LNA Drug Platform utilizing Santaris Pharma A/S proprietary LNA chemistry and tissue targeting technology provides the key to delivering on the promise of RNA-targeted therapies today by overcoming the limitation of earlier antisense and siRNA technologies. The increase in affinity that the LNA chemistry brings to oligonucleotides means that LNA-based drugs can be made much shorter than previous antisense drugs based on other chemistries, while displaying unprecedented affinity for their RNA targets. In turn, this unique combination of small size and very high affinity, which is only achievable with LNA-based drugs, allows this new class of antisense drugs to potently and specifically inhibit RNA targets in many different tissues without the need for complex delivery vehicles. Furthermore, conjugations to tissue targeting molecules enables LNA drugs to substantially accumulate in the desired target tissue(s) thereby lowering the dose required to obtain pharmacology and significantly increase the therapeutic index (TI).