Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ARWR) today announced that Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (Janssen) part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, has delivered written notice of its intent to exercise its option right for ARO-JNJ1. Receipt of the option notice earns Arrowhead a $10 million option exercise fee and grants Janssen all rights, including licenses, and obligations to develop and commercialize ARO-JNJ1, an investigational RNAi therapeutic candidate which utilizes Arrowhead’s proprietary Targeted RNAi Molecule (TRiM^™) platform.

Chris Anzalone, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer at Arrowhead, said: “The collaboration with Janssen, which was executed in 2018, for ARO-HBV against chronic hepatitis B infection, and potentially three additional programs, has been highly productive and collaborative. We are thrilled that Janssen has decided to exercise its option on ARO-JNJ1 and move forward with clinical studies. We look forward to continued collaboration and progress as Janssen advances these potentially important new medicines.”

Arrowhead entered into a license and collaboration agreement, and into a research collaboration and option agreement, with Janssen in October 2018. Arrowhead is eligible for additional payments when future milestones are met and is also eligible for royalties on commercial sales of ARO-JNJ1.

About Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals develops medicines that treat intractable diseases by silencing the genes that cause them. Using a broad portfolio of RNA chemistries and efficient modes of delivery, Arrowhead therapies trigger the RNA interference mechanism to induce rapid, deep, and durable knockdown of target genes. RNA interference, or RNAi, is a mechanism present in living cells that inhibits the expression of a specific gene, thereby affecting the production of a specific protein. Arrowhead’s RNAi-based therapeutics leverage this natural pathway of gene silencing.

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Source: Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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