On May 25, 2021 Silence Therapeutics plc, AIM:SLN and Nasdaq: SLN ("Silence" or "the Company"), a leader in the discovery, development and delivery of novel short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) therapeutics for the treatment of diseases with significant unmet medical need, reported receipt of the remaining $40.0 million from AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company, due as part of AstraZeneca’s $80.0 million cash and equity investment for the siRNA collaboration announced in March 2020 (Press release, Silence Therapeutics, MAY 25, 2021, View Source [SID1234580559]). The $40.0 million is included in Silence’s reported £97.5 million proforma cash balance at 2020 year-end1.

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The companies also started work on two undisclosed targets and are on-track to initiate work on five targets within the first three years of the collaboration. The collaboration is focused on leveraging Silence’s proprietary mRNAi GOLD platform to discover and develop siRNA therapeutics for cardiovascular, renal, metabolic (CVRM) and respiratory diseases.

Mark Rothera, President and CEO of Silence, commented: "We’ve made significant progress in our collaboration with AstraZeneca over the past year and are well positioned to initiate work on five disease targets within the first three years. This underscores our firm commitment to rapidly advance our pipeline through both our wholly owned programs and partnership programs."

Regina Fritsche Danielson, Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Early Development, CVRM, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca said: "We continue to see great promise in Silence’s established siRNA platform to develop novel medicines across our key therapy areas in cardiovascular, renal, metabolic and respiratory diseases. We look forward to our continued partnership and advancing our discovery efforts to address unmet medical needs."

Under the collaboration, AstraZeneca will pay Silence an option fee of $10 million for each selected target at the point of candidate nomination. For each target selected, Silence is eligible to receive up to $140 million in development milestones and up to $250 million in commercialization milestones as well as tiered royalties on net sales. Silence is responsible for the discovery stage up to the point of candidate nomination at which point AstraZeneca takes over responsibility and costs for further development. Silence retains responsibility for manufacturing of material to support GLP toxicology studies and Phase I clinical studies, costs for such manufacture are covered by AstraZeneca. Silence also has the option to negotiate for co-development of two selected programs of its choice starting from Phase II.

On May 25, 2021 Sierra Oncology, Inc. (SRRA), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company on a quest to deliver targeted therapies that treat rare forms of cancer, reported that the company will participate in the 2021 Jefferies Healthcare Conference being held virtually from June 1-4, 2021 (Press release, Sierra Oncology, MAY 25, 2021, View Source [SID1234580558]). Stephen Dilly, MBBS, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sierra will present an overview of the company on Thursday, June 3 from 1:30 – 1:55 pm ET.

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The presentation will be webcast at the time noted above, and a replay will be made available following the presentation, on the Investors section of Sierra’s corporate website in the Events & Webcast tab.

On May 25, 2021 Selecta Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SELB), a biotechnology company leveraging its clinically validated ImmTOR platform to develop tolerogenic therapies that selectively mitigate unwanted immune responses, reported that Selecta’s Chief Executive Officer, Carsten Brunn, Ph.D., will provide a corporate update and participate in one-on-one investor meetings at the Jefferies Virtual Healthcare Conference to be held June 1-4, 2021 (Press release, Selecta Biosciences, MAY 25, 2021, View Source [SID1234580557]).

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The presentation on Tuesday, June 1 at 9:30 a.m. ET will be available through the Jefferies conference portal and an archived webcast will also be accessible in the Investors & Media section of the company’s website at www.selectabio.com.

On May 25, 2021 Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PIRS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing novel biotherapeutics through its proprietary Anticalin technology platform for respiratory diseases, cancer, and other indications, reported it has entered into a multi-program research collaboration and license agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover, develop and commercialize locally delivered respiratory and ophthalmology therapies that leverage Pieris’ proprietary Anticalin technology (Press release, Pieris Pharmaceuticals, MAY 25, 2021, View Source [SID1234580556]).

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The research collaboration will enable Pieris to combine its robust discovery engine with Genentech’s targets, as well as its preclinical and clinical development expertise, to create novel therapies for the treatment of respiratory and ophthalmological diseases. These two focus areas of the collaboration are uniquely suited to the advantages offered by the small size of Anticalin proteins when delivered locally.

"We look forward to working closely with Genentech on the development of new inhaled and ophthalmological treatments based on the Anticalin platform. This collaboration further expands our partnered efforts in respiratory diseases and opens a new avenue for our Anticalin technology to potentially provide patient benefit through local biological effects. This is our second respiratory alliance with a major biopharma company, and we remain deeply committed to inhaled biologics, which have already shown benefit in the clinic. We also look forward to pursuing another local application of our technology in ophthalmology, where Genentech has extensive capabilities," said Stephen S. Yoder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pieris.

"Genentech has a longstanding commitment to understanding the underlying biology of respiratory and ocular diseases and translating this expertise into treatments for patients," said James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Pharma Partnering, Roche. "We are excited to partner with Pieris Pharmaceuticals to advance potential new therapies that we hope could make a significant difference in the lives of people who need them."

Under the terms of the agreement, Pieris will receive $20 million as an upfront payment and may be eligible to receive more than $1.4 billion in additional milestone payments across multiple programs, as well as tiered royalties for commercialized programs. Pieris will be responsible for discovery research and early preclinical development of the programs, and Genentech will be responsible for IND-enabling activities, clinical development, and commercialization of those programs. Genentech will also have the option to select additional targets in return for an option exercise fee. The collaboration does not include any of Pieris’ internal programs.

On May 25, 2021 ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ORIC), a clinical stage oncology company focused on developing treatments that address mechanisms of therapeutic resistance, reported that the company will host a conference call and webcast to review initial data from the ongoing Phase 1b study of ORIC-101, a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist, in combination with nab-paclitaxel in advanced solid tumors (Press release, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, MAY 25, 2021, https://investors.oricpharma.com/news-releases/news-release-details/oric-pharmaceuticals-host-conference-call-kol-review-initial [SID1234580555]). On the conference call, management will be joined by trial investigator and senior author, Professor Pamela Munster, M.D., Director of the Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit and Co-Leader of the Center for BRCA Research at the University of California San Francisco. The data will also be presented in two posters at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting to be held June 4 – 8, 2021.

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Webcast and Conference Call

ORIC will host a conference call and webcast, Wednesday, June 2, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. ET. To participate in the conference call, please dial (833) 651-0991 (domestic) or (918) 922-6080 (international) and refer to conference ID 4783288. A live webcast and audio archive of the conference call will be available through the investor section of the company’s website at www.oricpharma.com. The webcast will be available for replay for 90 days following the presentation.