Aro Collaboration with Ionis Advances with Option Exercise

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aro Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing a new generation of medicines based on its proprietary CENTYRIN™ technology, announced today that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the leader in RNA-targeted therapeutics, has exercised an option to acquire a license to an undisclosed antisense oligonucleotide (ASO)-Centyrin drug conjugate. In December 2019, Aro and Ionis entered into a licensing and collaboration agreement to advance a defined number of ASO-Centyrin drug conjugates. Ionis is leveraging Aro’s CENTYRIN technology to enhance the activity of ASOs via tissue-specific delivery, resulting in more efficient inhibition of disease-causing RNAs and proteins.

“We remain excited about the promise of our combined technologies to bring new treatment options to patients,” said Susan Dillon, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aro Biotherapeutics. “Ionis’ work in RNA-targeted therapeutics is transformative and we look forward to the continued advancement of new ASO-Centyrin therapeutic candidates as part of our collaboration.”

“Leveraging Aro Biotherapeutics’ unique CENTYRIN technology to develop drug candidates with targeted cell- and tissue-specific delivery of our novel antisense medicines will help further expand Ionis’ already robust pipeline, allowing us to say “yes” to even more patients who depend on Ionis for transformative therapies,“ said Frank Bennett, Ph.D., Ionis’ Chief Scientific Officer.

About Aro Biotherapeutics

Aro is a biotechnology company focused on the research and development of a new generation of protein biologics called Centyrins. The company is developing a wholly-owned pipeline of Centyrins and is working with leaders in the industry on leveraging Centyrins for tissue-specific targeting of therapeutics, including nucleic acid drugs for a diverse set of diseases. For more information, visit www.arobiotx.com.