miRagen Therapeutics Receives Orphan Drug Designation for MGN-4893 for the Treatment of Polycythemia Vera

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--miRagen Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients’ lives by developing innovative microRNA (miRNA)-based therapeutics for cardiovascular and muscle disease, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to the company’s compound MGN-4893 for the treatment of polycythemia vera, a myeloproliferative disease characterized by an overabundance of blood cells and platelets in the body. MGN-4893 targets microRNA-451, which has been demonstrated in recent studies to play a crucial role in the regulation of blood cell development. miRagen is currently conducting pre-clinical studies and expects to initiate human clinical trials in 2012.