Shire enters research collaboration with Santaris Pharma on LNA drug platform

Shire plc, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, has entered into a research-based collaboration with Santaris Pharma A/S, a leading player in RNA-based therapeutics, to develop its proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology in a range of rare diseases, thereby enabling Shire to build on its already strong competitive position for its Human Genetic Therapies (HGT) business. LNA technology has the benefit of a very quick validated target to proof of concept turnaround, thereby increasing the speed and lowering the cost of development.

Currently, Shire HGT has a unique and successful platform producing human cell derived enzyme replacement therapies (ERTs) for a wide range of rare human genetic disorders.