Founded in 2011 with a mission to both discover and develop internal candidates while also in-licensing mid-stage candidates from other companies, the two-fold strategy of Ascletis Inc. began to reach fruition July 12 with the announcement of a licensing deal for an RNA-interference candidate for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from U.S. biotech Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Alnylam, one of the pioneer firms in RNAi, advanced ALN-VSP through Phase I in liver cancer but, due to the...