SanegeneBio and Orbit join forces to establish targeting peptides

Agreement covers cell-based studies, with an additional option to further develop screening activities

Orbit Discovery (Orbit) – a company which focuses on the discovery of therapeutic peptides – has announced it has entered into a partnership with SanegeneBio (Sanegene), a start-up aiming to develop novel RNAi-based medicines.

The main ambition of the link-up is to identify tissue-specific delivery of a RNA (ribonucleic acid) therapeutics to efficiently knock down disease-causing genes.

Furthermore, the agreement covers cell-based internalisation studies, with an additional option for Sanegene to further develop hits resulting from screening activities. Through the collaboration with Orbit, Sanegene is looking to develop a portfolio of advanced RNAi therapeutics.

Orbit’s technology enables the screening of large quantities of peptides using a combination of bead-based presentation and DNA encoded libraries. In addition, the peptide display engine is able to address soluble targets, allowing more rapid discovery times of relevant peptide leads based.

Dr Weimin Wang, chief executive officer of Sanegene, commented: “Orbit has developed an impressive platform technology that is ideal for our requirements. We selected Orbit as our discovery partner because of the team’s experience in overcoming peptide screening challenges alongside an industry-leading platform.

“We are confident that the combination of Orbit’s peptide discovery capabilities and our expertise in RNAi drug discovery and development will facilitate the accelerated entry of our therapeutics portfolio into the clinic.”

Dr Neil Butt, chief executive officer of Orbit, concluded: “Sanegene has established an incredible ability to screen for RNAi molecules in a robust and efficient manner. We are delighted to leverage the speed and performance of the Orbit platform to enable Sanegene to generate specific targeting peptides.

“This collaboration is further validation of our platform and adds to an expanding portfolio of partners that benefit from combining our technologies with our insight in the drug discovery process. Our aim is to make screening more relevant to the final biological read-outs, to ensure the right leads are selected first time, every time.”