SLN6 Feb 2013 19:26
Silence Therapeutics
One such business is Silence Therapeutics, which is involved in pioneering drug therapies to help treat cancer, kidney disease and eye conditions that create blindness in the elderly.
Although science has made great strides over recent decades, numerous diseases remain untreatable because no one has worked out how to enable the right drugs to target the right places in the body. It sounds simple but, in many cases, it is virtually impossible. At least, it has been until now.
Silence has discovered a way of blocking messages from genes that tell cells in the body to make certain degenerative proteins, effectively 'silencing' the genes. This is known technically as RNA interference (RNAi).
Silence is not the only company to be looking at this type of bio-technology – a couple of American groups are investigating it as well. But Silence describes itself as the tortoise in the hare and the tortoise race – it is moving more slowly than rivals but it expects ultimately to beat them.
While American firms have been focusing on perfecting drugs in laboratory situations, Silence is taking a more practical approach, making sure that its treatments work in the lab but can also be administered effectively to people. Three of its drugs are undergoing clinical trials already and early signs are encouraging.
The company is run by Ian Ross, a veteran of the biotech sector, who has held senior positions at pharmaceutical giants such as Sandoz and Roche, as well as Celltech in the UK, a company which was sold to the Belgian drugmaker UCB in 2004.
Silence shares are trading at just under 20p, having suffered from the general malaise afflicting small, pioneering companies on Aim. But the stock was nearly 150p at the end of 2007. In fact, Astra Zeneca bought a 3% stake at 146p a share two years ago. Some shareholders may be aggrieved at the loss of value since but Astra Zeneca appears to be phlegmatic and is collaborating with Silence on various drug delivery methods.
Silence is working with other pharmaceutical partners as well. It has long-standing arrangements with US groups Pfizer and Quark and only last week announced a partnership with the Japanese company Dainippon Sumitomo. The company has City supporters too – shareholders include Fidelity, Gartmore and Insight, as well as numerous individual investors.
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