Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRNA) rose Monday after reporting a licensing and research collaboration with Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) for the development and commercialization of new medicines in cardio-metabolic disease, neurodegeneration and pain.
The companies will utilize Dicerna's proprietary GalXC™ RNAi technology platform to progress new drug targets toward clinical development and commercialization. In addition, the partners will collaborate to move beyond the current technical paradigm in order to generate next-generation oligonucleotide therapeutic agents.
RNA interference (RNAi) is an emerging new approach to drug discovery, focused on a biologic process in which certain RNA molecules inhibit the expression of disease-causing genes by destroying the messenger RNAs (mRNAs) of those genes. RNAi has the potential to treat diseases by silencing some of the most well-validated, yet previously inaccessible drug targets.
Lilly Chief Scientific Officer Daniel M. Skovronsky, was quoted thus "At Lilly, we go to where breaking science meets unmet medical needs. We are excited to collaborate with Dicerna and utilize their RNAi expertise to study targets that up until now have proven to be very technically challenging.
"RNAi has the potential to treat an array of diseases that are of strategic importance to Lilly. Together with Dicerna, we aim to employ this emerging modality for greater success in drug development."
Dicerna CEO Douglas Fambrough had this to say, "The collaboration with Lilly provides an exceptional opportunity to leverage our proprietary GalXC platform in order to generate new medicines for cardio-metabolic diseases, and to establish a presence in new fields including neurodegeneration and pain."
Dicerna shares galloped $1.99, or 15.3%, to $14.99, while Lilly climbed $1.82, or 1.7%, to $108.21
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