SLN.L Regulatory News (SLN)

Silence strengthens US patent estate

24 July 2017

Silence Therapeutics plc, AIM:SLN ("Silence" or "the Company") a leader in the discovery, delivery, and development of novel RNA therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases with unmet medical need, announces that a further key US patent US 9,695,423 has been granted to Silence this month.

As previously announced on 30 May 2017, the US Patent Office issued a notice of allowance for US patent application 14/977,710, which has now issued as US patent US 9,695,423. This US patent provides further protection for Silence's innovative chemical modification technology in the US. Silence believes that the granted claims are relevant to third party medicines in ongoing clinical trials.

Chemical modification technology is vital to prevent the degradation of therapeutic short interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules and to enable potent RNA interference (RNAi). The use of such technology has a substantial impact on the performance of RNAi based drugs and as such is also used in third party RNAi medicines.

Ali Mortazavi, Chief Executive Officer of Silence Therapeutics, commented:

"The grant of US 9,695,423 is further confirmation by the US Patent Office of the validity of our patent claims that protect our innovative chemical modification technology. As previously stated, we will consider potential licences under our patent estate, which could have a significant financial effect relative to the current market capitalisation of Silence."

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About Silence Therapeutics plc

Silence Therapeutics develops a new generation of medicines by harnessing the body's natural mechanism of RNA interference, or RNAi, within its cells. Our proprietary technology can selectively inhibit any gene in the genome, specifically silencing the production of disease-causing proteins. Using our enabling delivery systems, we have achieved an additional level of specificity by delivering our therapeutic RNA molecules exclusively to target cells. Silence's proprietary RNA chemistries and delivery systems are designed to improve the stability of our molecules and enhance effective delivery to target cells, providing a powerful modular technology well suited to tackle life-threatening diseases.