The ADARx Pharmaceuticals partnership, which could be worth “several billion dollars” in the end, adds to AbbVie’s existing work in the space after the $1.4 billion acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics in October 2024.
AbbVie dipped its toes into the world of small interfering RNA last year with the buyout of Aliada Therapeutics. Now, the Illinois pharma is diving in further with a $335 million upfront payment to work with ADARx Pharmaceuticals to find new treatments.
The deal spans disease areas but neuroscience, immunology and oncology were noted in the Wednesday release as focus areas. ADARx will receive the upfront fee and also be eligible for “several billion dollars” in milestones down the line, the companies said.
ADARx will use its siRNA technology to find new molecules, with AbbVie contributing expertise in antibody engineering, antibody drug conjugates and tissue delivery. siRNA medicines regulate gene expression and protein production and can prevent the production of disease-causing proteins by targeting messenger RNA (mRNA) that encodes for these proteins.
The ADARx partnership adds to AbbVie’s existing work in the space after its $1.4 billion acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics in October 2024. That deal was focused on Aliada’s Alzheimer’s anti-pyroglutamate amyloid beta (3pE-Aβ) antibody ALIA-1758 and blood-brain barrier shuttle technology, which could be used for siRNA therapeutics.
Beyond the AbbVie partnership, ADARx has a pipeline of clinical-stage medicines for complement-mediated, cardiovascular and thrombotic diseases. The most advanced is ADX-324, which is nearing Phase III testing for hereditary angioedema. The biotech also has programs in discovery for obesity and neurodegeneration.
ADARx last raised funds in August 2023, taking home $200 million in series C funds to advance ADX-324 as well as ADX-038, which is in development for multiple complement-mediated diseases.
siRNA has become a hot space for pharma. Also on Wednesday, GSK inked a deal to buy Boston Pharmaceuticals’ efimosfermin alfa. The plan is to combine the FGF21 analog with GSK’s siRNA therapy GSK’990.
The new deals follow Eli Lilly’s March announcement that its siRNA therapy lepodisiran reduced lipoprotein(a) levels by nearly 94% in patients at risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack or stroke. And Boehringer Ingelheim signed a deal in January 2024 worth up to $2 billion with Chinese biotech Suzhou Ribo Life Science and its Swedish unit Ribocure Pharmaceuticals to develop siRNA-based treatments for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on May 14 at 12 p.m. ET to clarify the focus of the Aliada Therapeutics acquisition.
