Secarna Pharmaceuticals GmbH & Co. KG, a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the discovery and development of next-generation antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies to address challenging or previously undruggable targets, expanded its research collaboration and option agreement with Denali Therapeutics Inc. in the field of neurodegenerative diseases.
The companies also added multiple additional discovery and research programs across a range of indications to the partnership.
 
Secarna will employ its commercially validated discovery and development platform, LNAplus to generate antisense oligonucleotide candidates against targets relevant for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Denali will apply its blood-brain barrier (BBB) Transport Vehicle (TV) technology to enable delivery of these LNAplus-based ASOs to the central nervous system.
 
Secarna will receive an undisclosed target-based technology access fee and prepaid R&D fee. Secarna is also eligible to receive development and commercial milestone payments, and royalties for each program that Denali progresses through development and commercialization.
 
“Since the beginning of our collaboration in fall 2020, Denali has been an excellent partner, and we are proud of the remarkable progress our programs have made,” said Alexander Gebauer, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Secarna Pharmaceuticals. “This expansion of our partnership further validates Secarna’s proprietary ASO discovery and development technology and demonstrates its potential to generate highly specific, safe and effective ASOs, even for very challenging targets.”
 
Alexander Schuth, MD, Co-Founder and COO of Denali Therapeutics, added: “We are excited to expand our partnership with Secarna. Together, we aim to develop novel ASOs that can address targets in the central nervous system using our Oligonucleotide Transport Vehicle (OTV) technology to enable delivery through the blood-brain barrier after intravenous administration. Patients with neurodegenerative diseases currently have limited treatment options, and we are optimistic about the potential that our collaboration with Secarna can lead to more effective therapies.”