As Ac­thar trou­bles per­sist, Mallinck­rodt in­vests in RNAi and Si­lence Ther­a­peu­tics

A day af­ter it was forced to ax an amy­otroph­ic lat­er­al scle­ro­sis study test­ing its con­tro­ver­sial Ac­thar gel, Mallinck­rodt is in­vest­ing in RNA tech­nol­o­gy to tar­get rare dis­eases by en­list­ing Si­lence Ther­a­peu­tics as a part­ner.

Si­lence Ther­a­peu­tics, akin to oth­ers in its field such as Al­ny­lam who pi­o­neered the first RNA in­ter­fer­ence ther­a­py last Au­gust, is bet­ting on the promise of si­lenc­ing the ex­pres­sion of dis­ease-caus­ing pro­teins. The land­mark dis­cov­ery of RNA in­ter­fer­ence was re­ward­ed with a No­bel prize in 2006. Though found­ed in 1994, the Lon­don biotech changed course to cham­pi­on RNA ther­a­peu­tics in 2012 — and is still in the pre­clin­i­cal phas­es with its slate of ex­per­i­men­tal drugs.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER