Servier And miRagen Extend Drug Research Partnership

Servier, a French based pharmaceutical research company, has announced that it will be extending its drug research partnership with miRagen Therapeutics. The partnership will be extended until 2016. The collaboration first began in 2011, when the companies signed a License and Collaboration Agreement with Servier focused on two cardiovascular drug candidates, miR-208 and miR-15/195. The companies will be starting preclinical research and development on the miR-208 and miR-15/195 drug candidates in addition to a host of other cardiovascular options.

Servier has stated that it will be responsible for the global clinical development and marketing of all drug candidates, and will retain rights in all countries except for the U.S. and Japan, where miRagen will hold all rights.

William S. Marshall, the President and CEO of mirage, released a statement on the agreement. “Extending our research collaboration with Servier highlights our collective dedication to harnessing the power of microRNAs to develop transformative therapies for patients in need. We believe that our microRNA therapeutics platform combined with Servier’s extensive knowledge and commitment to cardiovascular disease will allow us to deliver breakthrough therapies that improve human health,” he said.

Dr. Jean-Paul Vilaine, Director of Servier’s Cardiovascular Research Unit, echoed the sentiments. He stated that the companies were looking forward to continue their partnership in the hopes of saving cardiovascular patients’ lives in their effort to discover, develop, and market microRNA-targeting drugs.

MicroRNAs are used to target biologic and disease processes since they are responsible gene expression. MicroRNAs are also implicated in molecular entities that help to determine the expression of fundamental regulatory pathways.