BRIEF—Milestone in Silence Mallinckrodt collab

UK novel RNA therapeutics firm Silence Therapeutics will receive a milestone payment of $2 million from Mallinckrodt, after work started on a third target being explored under an ongoing collaboration.

Since 2019, the firms have been working together to develop candidates for complement pathway-mediated diseases, using Silence’s proprietary mRNAi GOLD platform.

Mallinckrodt chief executive Mark Trudeau said: "We are pleased by the significant potential of Silence's RNAi technology to address the unmet needs of patients suffering from a range of rare diseases as well as conditions of immune dysregulation.”

He added: “We look forward to working with Silence to progress IND enabling studies related to our complement pathway C3 targeting program this year."

If all goes well, Silence is eligible to receive tiered double-digit royalties on net sales for each optioned product candidate and up to $2 billion in total milestone payments across three targets.