Cardior Pharmaceuticals GmbH

Dyslipidemia, a condition involving unhealthy levels of cholesterols and other fats in the blood, is a major risk factor in cardiovascular diseases, which make up the world’s biggest killer with 17.9 million deaths ​ per year. While there are treatments for dyslipidemia, they are not sufficient to control the blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ‘bad cholesterol,’ in many patients. The oral drug developed by CSPC is designed to prevent the production of a low-density lipoprotein called lipoprotein (a), which is involved in the transport of cholesterol in the bloodstream. By doing this, it may treat and prevent a range of cardiovascular diseases as a monotherapy or in combination with another small molecule candidate by AstraZeneca’s that depletes low-density lipoproteins by blocking an enzyme called PCSK9. According to the deal terms, CSPC is eligible for $100 million upfront in addition to up to $1.92 billion in payments based on development and commercialization milestones, plus tiered royalties. Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president and head of biopharmaceuticals R&D stated ​ that the asset “could help patients to more effectively manage their dyslipidemia and related cardiometabolic diseases. Given the scale of unmet need, with cardiovascular disease being a leading cause of death globally, advancing novel therapies that can be used alone or in combination to effectively address known risk factors and advance patient care is particularly important and a key part of our strategy.” googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('text-ad1'); }); The global market for cardiovascular disease treatments was worth a massive $144 billion in 2023 ​ and is projected to grow by 4% per year to $208 billion by 2030. The market growth is being fuelled by increasingly sedentary lifestyles across the population, leading to higher prevalences of cardiovascular diseases in both young and old people. This is the latest deal showcasing major interest from big pharma companies in cardiovascular disease treatments. AstraZeneca kicked off 2023 with a $1.8 billion takeover of the U.S. drug developer CinCor. Other examples include Novo Nordisk’s takeover of the German player Cardior Pharmaceuticals for up to €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in March this year and Bayer acquiring the European marketing rights to a small molecule cardiovascular disease treatment from Eidos Therapeutics of the U.S. for up to $310 million upfront in the same month. AstraZeneca also has major interest in the field of obesity, having inked another $2 billion licensing deal with China’s Eccogene last year for global rights to the latter’s oral once-daily glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist.

Korro’s OPERA platform is designed to use an oligonucleotide to "co-opt a natural process in the human body to make changes in mRNA encoding the protein." Novo Nordisk isn’t done with the RNA deals, this time penning a $530 million biobucks deal to work with Korro Bio on two cardiometabolic-related targets.Korro’s Oligonucleotide Promoted Editing of RNA (OPERA) platform is designed to use an oligonucleotide to “co-opt a natural process in the human body to make changes in mRNA encoding the protein, leaving the DNA genome unaltered, thus aiming to bring a pharmacologically titratable approach using genetic medicine,” Novo explained in the Sept. 16 release.The Danish pharma made a concerted push into the ribonucleic acid space via the acquisition of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals in 2021. Since then, it has collaborated with Eleven Therapeutics to identify new molecules that promote the precise delivery of RNA-based therapies, and more recently bought out Cardior Pharmaceuticals, which is developing an antisense oligonucleotide to inhibit a piece of noncoding RNA.Novo said this morning that there “continues to be a need to explore novel treatment approaches for cardiometabolic conditions including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.” “RNA editing can specifically and efficiently modulate protein function, potentially enabling access to previously undruggable targets for cardiometabolic diseases,” Novo explained.Uli Stilz, Head of Novo Nordisk’s Bio Innovation Hub, said in the release that the company is “excited to partner with Korro on its differentiated RNA editing platform as we explore novel technologies to address the unmet need for people living with cardiometabolic diseases.”“With our deep knowledge of cardiometabolic diseases and Korro’s unique approach, we have the opportunity to establish a new paradigm of treatment modalities for cardiometabolic diseases by addressing otherwise undruggable targets,” Stilz added.Novo didn’t provide a breakdown of the financials from the deal beyond the top-line figure of $530 million biobucks. We do know that Korro will take forward two programs aimed at undisclosed cardiometabolic targets through preclinical development, with Novo taking over for human studies and beyond.“This collaboration enables us to use our proprietary technologies and capabilities in RNA editing to develop potential new treatments for people living with chronic diseases without impacting our internal pipeline focus,” Korro’s CEO Ram Aiyar, Ph.D., said in the release. “This partnership will expand the opportunity to potentially bring targeted RNA editing to diseases with high prevalence.”Korro, which went public last year via a merger with Frequency Therapeutics, has been aiming to get FDA permission later this year to enter its lead asset KRRO-110 into a first-in-human trial. The candidate, developed with the OPERA platform, is designed to treat alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) by correcting the AAT protein.

On August 28, Bayer and NextRNA Therapeutics, Inc. announced a collaboration and licensing agreement. Under the agreement, the two companies will jointly develop two small molecule therapies targeting long non-coding Rnas (lncrnas), with the aim of further strengthening Bayer's R&D pipeline in precision oncology. NextRNA Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing innovative drugs to treat diseases driven by lncRNA. Under the terms of the agreement, Bayer and NextRNA will jointly advance two programs targeting oncology indications where there is currently a significant unmet medical need. The first project involves small molecule therapies targeting lncrnas and is currently in early preclinical development of NextRNA. In the second project, NextRNA will propose lncRNA targets identified by its platform, while Bayer will have the right to select one of these targets for co-development. Bayer will provide up to $547 million in financial support for both projects, which includes upfront and late-stage milestone payments, research funding, development and commercial milestone payments, and tiered royalties based on net sales.   Founded in 2021, NextRNA Therapeutics' research and development direction is based on the pioneering research of Dr. Carl Novina at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The company is focused on developing small molecule drugs that can selectively modulate lncRNA interactions with proteins. Under pathological conditions, dysregulated lncrnas recruit RNA-binding proteins (RBP), thereby driving the pathological process of the disease. NextRNA Therapeutics mainly disrupts the interaction between lncRNA and RBP through small molecule drugs to inhibit the function of lncRNA associated with disease. NextRNA Therapeutics' competitive advantage lies in its unique NextMap computational engine, which combines deep lncRNA biology expertise with multiple biochemical, biophysical and chemical technologies to build a powerful R&D platform.   In March 2022, NextRNA Therapeutics successfully closed A $9.3 million seed round and a $46.8 million Series A round. CobroVentures and Lightchain Capital led both rounds of funding, CircleAlternative Investments, Evans Capital, Jefferies, Rivas Capital and Willett Advisors also participated. NextRNA Therapeutics is being backed by a number of international investors. The funds will be used to strengthen NextRNA Therapeutics' target and drug discovery engine, expand the product pipeline, and advance pilot programs.   Bayer's collaboration with NextRNA Therapeutics not only strengthens NextRNA's leading position in lncRNA targets, but also underscores its value as an ideal partner for developing innovative small molecule drugs across disease domains. In living organisms, non-coding Rnas (Ncrnas) are a class of RNA molecules that are not involved in protein coding. They fall into two main categories: short-chain micrornas (mirnas) and long-chain lncrnas. Numerous studies have shown that although Ncrnas do not encode proteins, they are closely involved in a variety of complex biological processes, such as immune cell development and function, immune disorders, neurodevelopment, and neurological diseases. Therefore, lncrnas and other Ncrnas and their interacting proteins constitute a vast and underexplored field of novel therapeutic targets.   In recent years, in addition to NextRNA, many emerging companies are also working to develop targeted therapies for long non-coding RNA (lncRNA). Laronde was one of the pioneers in the early deployment of lncRNA therapeutics, building a technology platform based on circular RNA (circRNA). Because circRNA, as a type of lncRNA, is more stable, Laronde plans to take advantage of this property to achieve more durable expression of therapeutic proteins such as peptides, enzymes and antibodies in the body. In May 2021, the company received a $50 million investment from Flagship Pioneering; In August 2021, Laronde closed a $440 million funding round.   Transine Therapeutics was founded by Prof. Piero Carninci, a pioneer in the field of functional genomics and lncRNA, and Prof. Stefano Gustincich. Transine's SINEUP platform is a lncrNA-specific technology that specifically enhances the translation efficiency of targeted mrnas. SINEUP consists of an mRNA binding domain and a functional domain, in which the binding domain is responsible for identifying targeted mrnas and is the core of platform specificity. The functional domain is responsible for directly recruiting the ribosome and enhancing the expression of the protein through the insertion of the reverse SINEB2 repeat, hence the name of the technique. Transine closed a £9.1 million seed round in June 2021 and an additional £4.6 million seed round in May 2022.   HAYA Therapeutics uses lncRNA as a drug target, identifies tissue - and cell-specific lncrnas from the dark genome through its proprietary technology platform, and develops RNA-targeted therapies targeting these lncrnas to inhibit their expression. Examples include the use of modified antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) to prevent and reverse fibrosis, providing more effective treatment options for diseases such as cardiac fibrosis. In addition, HAYA Therapeutics has established the world's largest lncRNA database to explore lncrnas associated with disease, tissue and cell specificity, and species conservation. In September 2022, the company closed A $40 million Series A funding round.   Cardior is focused on developing non-coding RNA (ncRNA) -based therapies for patients with heart disease. Unlike NextRNA, which is focused on developing small molecule therapies, Cardior's flagship program, CDR132L, is an oligonucleotide ncRNA inhibitor targeting micro-RNA-132, which is capable of affecting multiple key disease signaling pathways simultaneously, resulting in synergistic therapeutic effects targeting key features of heart disease. Cardior has successfully raised $76 million in Series B funding.   In China, lncTAC is a leader in the field of long-chain non-coding RNA (lncRNA) drug research and development. Founded in 2021, the company is dedicated to the research and development of innovative nucleic acid drugs based on lncRNA. At present, lncTAC has established a nucleic acid drug stabilization platform and an extra-hepatic targeted delivery platform with fully independent intellectual property rights.   In addition to lncTAC, there are Hanbio, Novogene, OBiO Technology and other enterprises in the field of lncRNA layout.   In fact, lncrnas are the most abundant class of regulatory RNA molecules in the human body. More than 72% of the human genome is transcribed as lncrnas, which far outnumber proteins, indicating the existence of more potential drug targets. lncRNA can regulate epigenetic, chromatin modification, transcriptional activation and other key life processes, and can play a role in the extracellular, cellular membrane and intracellular. Therefore, disease therapy by targeting lncrnas is considered to be a promising strategy. At present, domestic and foreign enterprises are in the initial stage of development in this field, and we expect relevant enterprises to make breakthroughs in the field of lncRNA as soon as possible.