Copenhagen, Denmark, April 27th, 2009: As a testimony to the strength of Santaris Pharma’s efficient Drug Discovery Engine, the Company announced today the completion of the delivery of six cancer target drug candidates to their collaboration partner Enzon Pharmaceuticals. All six drug candidates have been designed, synthesized and selected in collaboration with Enzon, within 24 months of commencing the collaboration.  

“Our collaboration with Enzon Pharmaceuticals has been very productive and goal oriented enabling both companies to benefit optimally from our ability to rationally design, discover and select potent and safe RNA targeted drugs within a short time span,” said Henrik Ørum, Santaris Pharma’s Chief Scientific Officer.  

Santaris Pharma and Enzon Pharmaceuticals signed their agreement in 2006. As part of the agreement Santaris Pharma retains the lucrative commercial rights to the drugs within Europe. The agreement included two LNA based RNA inhibitors at the pre-clinical stage, EZN2968 against HIF-1α, and EZN3042 against Survivin, both of which are currently in Phase I studies conducted by Enzon, and the development of six additional cancer target drugs selected by Enzon which are in various stages of preclinical development.  

“We are encouraged by the data generated by the first two lead candidates,” said Dr. Ivan Horak, Executive Vice President of Research, Development and Chief Scientific Officer, Enzon Pharmaceuticals.  “In addition, I’m pleased to see the continued validation of the Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology as we continue to evaluate the additional targets in preclinical programs.”      

For further information, please contact

Randi Krogsgaard, Director, Corporate Communications
Direct phone +45 4517 9879
Cell: +45 20488384
E-mail: rmk@santaris.com
www.santaris.com  

Santaris Pharma (founded in 2003) is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing new classes of RNA medicines targeting disease-related mRNAs and miRNAs based on its proprietary LNA chemistry. The Company’s own research and development activities focus on microRNAs, infectious diseases and metabolic disorders. Santaris Pharma is leveraging its highly effective and efficient Drug Discovery Engine to generate lead LNA drug candidates against a broad array of disease targets selected by strategic partners. The Company and its corporate partners currently have four compounds in clinical development and a full pipeline in late preclinical development. Santaris Pharma has since its inception raised nearly $100 million through private financing and upfront payments.