Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Silencing Technique to Combat Hepatitis B in the Works

August 11, 2016 By University of Wisconsin - Madison

A method for “silencing” RNA that emerged from a University of Wisconsin-Madison spinoff company is in clinical trials in Europe, Asia and the United States against hepatitis B, an infection that can destroy the liver.

When RNA is silenced through RNA interference, or RNAi, the genes that cause disease are inactivated. Theoretically, the technique could cure viral or genetic disease.

The silencing technique being used by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals was invented at Mirus Bio, a spinoff from the UW-Madison Department of Pediatrics lab of Jon Wolff, and was shown to be effective using technology licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

The research facility in Madison is owned by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals of Pasadena, California. “Our strategy,” said David Lewis, chief scientific officer at Arrowhead Pharmaceutical’s research facility in Madison., “is to use RNAi to decrease the production of the viral proteins that weaken the immune system, allowing it to recover to the point that it will be able to clear the virus like it does in the other 90 percent of people who become infected.”

DNA operates through RNA, and when RNA interference was discovered in 1998, it seemed like a magic bullet that could fight disease by specifically shutting down problematic genes. That promise was difficult to achieve, and no FDA-approved RNAi medicine has yet reached the market, although two are in the final phase of clinical trials.

In general, the short strands of designer RNA used in RNAi either target the unwanted RNA for destruction, or clog it up so it can’t produce a protein. The process by which RNAi splits messenger RNA, is a “natural process,” Lewis said. “Almost all cells have this capability. It’s another level of control over gene expression.”

In gene expression, DNA makes RNA, and RNA makes protein.

During the early development of RNAi, the short strands of RNA that were injected into the body usually were excreted, producing no benefit. The result was “very expensive pee,” Lewis said.

But when Lewis and others at Mirus invented a system to connect the strand of RNA to a molecule that could lock onto liver cells, the door seemed open to finding a strategy for RNAi, at least in liver disease.

RNAi seemed so promising that pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La Roche bought Mirus’ RNAi division in 2008, although it left the lab in Madison. Within three years, Roche changed its mind and sold the business to Arrowhead, which likewise left the research and development in Madison. Arrowhead now employs 90 at University Research Park and in Middleton.

Lewis learned about RNAi while working in the lab of Sean Carroll, a UW-Madison geneticist who studies the genetic controls that give animals their characteristic body structures. “Sean wanted to know how genes used in the butterfly wing could make different patterns, and so he wanted to manipulate where the genes are expressed,” Lewis said. For his postdoctoral project, “I expressed these genes in the wrong places, or knocked them down with RNAi to see their effects.”

Lewis, who worked on the technology to target liver cells at Mirus, moved to Roche and then to Arrowhead.

The company is also developing other RNAi drugs, including some for a cardiovascular condition, but most of its effort is going toward phase 2 (dosing level) trials for hepatitis B. It’s a complex task, Lewis said. “Every country has its own regulatory requirements, and it’s truly a massive effort to file all those applications in over a dozen countries.”

The hepatitis drug is being tested at different dosing schedules, sometimes in combination with other antiviral drugs, Lewis said.

Related Articles Read More >

A portrait of Stryker executive Siddarth Satish
How Stryker includes users for product design in the digital age
A Medtronic HVAD pump opened up to show the inner workings
Medtronic investigates HVAD pump welds after patient deaths
Galien Foundation 2022 nominees
18 of the world’s most innovative medical technologies
Biotronik
FDA approves Biotronik’s programmer for implanted cardiac rhythm management devices

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 13, 2022
Our Pre-Post-DeviceTalks Boston episode, also MedtronicTalks replay with Gastro CMO Austin Chiang
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech