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, and SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals, a company involved in the discovery and development of innovative therapeutics for the treatment of neurological diseases, entered a multi-target research and option agreement.

The companies will work together to generate novel ASO therapies directed at targets that play a critical role in diseases of the central nervous system.

Secarna will employ its commercially validated locked nucleic acid discovery and development platform, LNAplus to generate and profile antisense oligonucleotide candidates against targets selected by SciNeuro that are relevant for the treatment of CNS diseases, following which SciNeuro has an option to obtain worldwide exclusive rights for development and commercialization.

“We are looking forward to collaborating with SciNeuro and to combine our industry-leading antisense oligonucleotide platform LNAplus with SciNeuro’s strong expertise and capabilities in the field of CNS diseases,” said Alexander Gebauer, CEO of Secarna Pharmaceuticals. “Together, we see the potential to break new ground and jointly develop highly specific, safe and effective therapeutics for patients living with incurable diseases of the central nervous system, who currently have very limited treatment options.”

“It is our mission to translate scientific discoveries into transformative CNS therapies that restore the joy in living,” said Min Li, Founder and CEO, SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals. “As Secarna’s validated ASO technology provides a highly promising pathway to access targets commonly deemed ‘undruggable,‘ we are excited about this collaboration to pursue novel therapeutics for patients living with debilitating CNS diseases.”