The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to Cure Rare Disease’s CRD-002, an antisense oligonucleotide therapeutic for the treatment of spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), including spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3).

Nissan Chemical Corporation and Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho Co. Ltd. (SKK) have entered an agreement to codevelop SK-2407/SN-001 for the treatment of dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) in Japan.

Quiver Bioscience Inc. is collaborating with the Dup15q Alliance to advance an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutic program for chromosome 15q duplication (Dup15q) syndrome.

New gapmer antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) candidates have been designed at Eisai Co. Ltd. to reduce microtubule-associated protein tau.

Cure Rare Disease has been awarded a $5.69 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to advance the development of an antisense oligonucleotide therapy for spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3).

Stargardt disease type 1 (STGD1) is an inherited retinal recessive disease caused by biallelic variants in the ABCA4 gene. One of the recurrent variants is located at the exon-intron junction of exon 6, c.768G>T. Due to its high prevalence, c.768G>T is an interesting therapeutic target for STGD1. Researchers from Radboud University developed a new antisense oligonucleotide (AON) therapy, designed to rescue the splicing defect caused by this variant.

In an indication that has proved difficult for biopharma to conquer, Regulus Therapeutics Inc. disclosed further positive data from its ongoing phase Ib study testing RGLS-8429 in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease and laid out its plans to move straight into a phase III trial later this year, with the potential for an accelerated U.S. approval.