Vect-Horus, a privately held biotechnology company that designs and develops molecular vectors that facilitate the targeted delivery of therapeutic molecules and imaging agents, today announced it has entered into a global license agreement with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: IONS). The agreement provides Ionis with a worldwide, exclusive license for a specified number of targets using Vect-Horus’ platform technology ”VECTrans” for systemic delivery of RNA-targeted therapeutics that can cross the blood-brain barrier and address targets in the central nervous system. Ionis has an option to add additional targets to the license. Vect-Horus retains the rights to use its technology, for these specific targets, for all non-RNA-Targeted Medicines.
Under the terms of the agreement, Vect-Horus will receive a double-digit million-dollar upfront payment. Vect-Horus will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and tiered single digit royalties on annual product sales.
“We are extremely pleased to partner with Ionis, a pioneer in RNA-targeted medicines, to tackle one of the toughest problems in RNA therapeutics, systemic delivery of therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier,” said Alexandre Tokay co-founder and CEO of Vect-Horus. “This license is aligned with our strategy of using our technology to deliver drug payloads, such as RNA-targeted therapeutics, to the brain and other tissues. We hope that combining our technology with Ionis’ industry-leading RNA-targeted drug platform will enable the creation of innovative medicines for a variety of neurological diseases.”
"With a proven track record of delivering first-in-class disease modifying medicines for serious neurological diseases, we believe we are well positioned to tackle the next frontier of delivery of neurology medicines across the blood-brain barrier," said Eric E. Swayze, Ph.D., Ionis’ executive vice president of research. "Vect-Horus’ promising technology represents a strategic addition to our industry-leading RNA technologies, providing us with the potential to bring systemically-delivered medicines to patients in need of treatment options across both rare and common neurological diseases.”