Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN) has spent US$9.6mln acquiring an 8.4% stake in an American business as a precursor to opening discussions over a licensing deal, R&D collaboration or “potential corporate transaction”.
NASDAQ-listed Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals is working in the same space as its UK contemporary – gene silencing – and is aiming to provide a new way of tackling difficult-to-treat diseases such as cancer.
The two companies aren’t currently in active negotiations, but Silence chief Ali Mortazavi said he looked forward to “opening a constructive dialogue” with Arrowhead”.
"We believe that the recent technological advancements in RNA therapeutics have been underestimated and undervalued,” he added.
“We are confident that the recent market approval of medicines in our field are the beginning of the emergence of an important new class of therapeutics.”
The company said it had, since its May 2015 capital raise, been “actively evaluating” a number of assets in the field of RNAi (that’s the science of shutting down unwanted or harmful genes).
It believes Arrowhead’s has one of the leading technology platforms in a sector.
“Silence will update the market at the appropriate time should any discussions progress to a transaction,” the company told investors.
The firm is one of the few UK biotechs that is cashed-up following that successful fundraise a year and a half ago.
At the last update it was sitting on around US$58mln (£47.6mln).