Pfizer inks deal with Santaris

SAN DIEGO — Pfizer will pay Danish biotech company Santaris Pharma $14 million for access to its development platform for RNA-based therapies, Pfizer said Tuesday.

The drug maker said the deal would expand on an existing one between Hoersholm, Denmark-based Santaris and Wyeth, which Pfizer acquired in 2009. Santaris could take in up to $600 million in milestone payments, as well as royalties on products developed under the collaboration.

Santaris’ locked nucleic acid, or LNA, platform is designed for the development of RNA-targeted drugs, which Pfizer said could fight diseases in ways that pharmaceuticals and even biotech drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, cannot.

“The expansion of our collaboration with Santaris Pharma A/S demonstrates our strategic intention to partner with innovative biopharm/biotech companies to explore novel drug design technologies as a potential source for breakthrough therapeutics,” said Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer president for worldwide research and development.