Exhibit 99.1
Silence Therapeutics Achieves $2 Million Research Milestone Payment from Hansoh Pharma Collaboration
24 June 2024
LONDON, Silence Therapeutics plc, Nasdaq: SLN (“Silence” or “the Company”), an experienced and innovative biotechnology company committed to transforming peoples’ lives by silencing diseases through precision engineered medicines, today announced that it will receive a $2.0 million cash payment from Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited (“Hansoh”) following the achievement of a second undisclosed milestone related to the first target under the collaboration.
“This represents an important milestone in our efforts to advance this program into the clinic with Hansoh,” said Craig Tooman, President and CEO of Silence. “This is an exciting time for Silence and our mRNAi GOLD™ platform as we continue to advance and expand our pipeline targeting a wide range of genetic diseases.”
Silence and Hansoh entered a collaboration in October 2021 to develop siRNAs (“short interfering RNAs”) leveraging Silence’s proprietary mRNAi GOLD™ platform for three undisclosed targets. Under the terms of the agreement, Silence has exclusive rights to the first two targets in all territories except the China region. Hansoh has the exclusive option to license rights to those two targets in the Greater China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and global rights to the third target.
Hansoh made a $16 million upfront payment to Silence and the Company is eligible to receive up to $1.3 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones. Silence is also eligible to receive royalties tiered from low double-digit to mid-teens on Hansoh net product sales. Today’s announcement represents the fourth research milestone payment achieved under the collaboration.
About Silence Therapeutics
Silence Therapeutics is developing a new generation of medicines by harnessing the body’s natural mechanism of RNA interference, or RNAi, to inhibit the expression of specific target genes thought to play a role in the pathology of diseases with significant unmet need. Silence’s proprietary mRNAi GOLD™ platform can be used to create siRNAs (short interfering RNAs) that precisely target and silence disease-associated genes in the liver, which represents a substantial opportunity. Silence’s wholly owned product candidates include zerlasiran designed to address the high and prevalent unmet medical need in reducing cardiovascular risk in people born with elevated levels of lipoprotein(a) and divesiran designed to address rare hematological diseases, including polycythemia vera. Silence also maintains ongoing research and development collaborations with AstraZeneca and Hansoh Pharma, among others. For more information, please visit https://www.silence-therapeutics.com/.
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