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HORSHOLM, Denmark—Biopharmaceutical company Santaris Pharma A/S, a privately held organization that specializes in medicines that target disease-related mRNAs and microRNAs, has established a worldwide strategic alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb for the discovery and development of novel medicines. The partners will make use of Santaris Pharma’s proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) drug platform in the course of this agreement.

Per the terms of the alliance, Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay Santaris Pharma $10 million up front, with the potential for up to $90 million in milestone payments per product and funding for ongoing discovery and research activities. Santaris Pharma will also be eligible for royalties on worldwide sales of all medicines that result from this agreement.

“We are delighted to welcome Bristol-Myers Squibb as a new partner,” Henrik Stage, president and CEO of Santaris Pharma, said in a press release regarding the deal. “This strategic alliance further consolidates Santaris Pharma’s leadership in the field of oligonucleotide therapeutics.”

Santaris Pharma’s LNA drug platform allows the company to produce LNA-based drug candidates against mRNA and microRNA targets in diseases such as cancer, cardiometabolic disorders, rare genetic disorders and infectious and inflammatory diseases. Santaris Pharma notes on its website that RNA-targeted medicines offer a variety of advantages, such as the ability to access disease-relevant targets that cannot be drugged by small molecules or antibodies, predictable pharmacokinetic/toxicological characteristics, ability to be designed according to the Watson-Crick base pairing rules and a reproducible, scalable drug manufacturing process that can be automated.

The company has a number of drug candidates under development in its pipeline, most of which are partnered with other organizations. The lead candidate is miravirsen (SPC3649), a Phase II compound indicated for the treatment of hepatitis C. Santaris Pharma’s other drug candidates are indicated for conditions and diseases such as cancer (including solid tumors), hypercholesterolemia, unspecified rare genetic disorders, cardiovascular disease and viral diseases.

“We are proud and honored that Bristol-Myers Squibb has chosen Santaris Pharma as their partner. We are confident that the unique features of the LNA Drug platform can achieve clinical breakthroughs and look forward to working closely with the Bristol-Myers Squibb team,” Dr. Henrik Ørum, chief scientific officer and vice president of business development at Santaris Pharma, commented in a statement.

The agreement is the second large deal announcement for the company in the past few months. In January, Santaris Pharma, along with miRagen Therapeutics, Inc., announced an expansion of their existing partnership in the field of microRNA therapeutics. The companies’ relationship began back in June 2010 when miRagen licensed rights to make use of the LNA drug platform to identify drug candidates against its own proprietary microRNA targets for possible cardiovascular disease treatments. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, miRagen has been granted a broad, non-exclusive license in the miRNA field for therapeutics research and worldwide exclusive rights to research, develop and commercialize LNA drugs against an additional six microRNA targets, which brings the total number of targets to 10. No financial terms for the agreement were disclosed.

Event Subject(s): Biosciences
Human Health
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Comparison of Operations for Three Months Ended December 31, 2012 and 2011

Revenue

Revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2012 was $0 compared to $608,676 for the three months ended December 31, 2011. The revenue decreased due to a reduction in retail orders and additional monthly retail service charges to maintain our presence on the shelves of the two national drugstore chains where we have distribution.

Cost of Sales

Cost of sales for the three months ended December 31, 2012 was $15,024, compared to $118,095 for the three months ended December 31, 2011. The cost of sales decreased due to the reduction in orders during this quarter.

Gross profit

The gross profit for the three months ended December 31, 2012 was a negative $15,024, compared to $490,581 for the three months ended December 31, 2011. The decrease in gross profit is due to the reduction in retail orders during this quarter.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $50,557 and $43,287 for the . . .