# Silence Therapeutics Plc Acquire Stake in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/silence-therapeutics-plc-acquire-stake-arrowhead-pharmaceuticals-inc/412720217
- Published: 2017-01-09T07:23:11+00:00
- Author: Giles Arbor

**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 it has acquired a stake,
on-market, in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARWR) (“Arrowhead”) of 6,006,359
common shares, representing 8.4% of the common share capital of Arrowhead, for a
total cash consideration of $9.6 million (£7.8 million(1)), excluding transaction
costs.

Since the capital raise of May 2015, Silence has been actively evaluating a number
of RNAi assets, including technologies within both listed and unlisted RNAi companies.
Arrowhead is a US based NASDAQ listed company that develops medicines to treat intractable
diseases by silencing the genes that cause them by means of a broad portfolio of
RNA chemistries and efficient modes of delivery. The Company believes that Arrowhead’s
IP, technology and pipeline is among the leading platform technologies in a sector
that promises huge potential advances by generating novel medicines.

Silence has acquired the equity position in order to facilitate future discussions
regarding a possible transaction with Arrowhead, which could include, but is not
limited to, product licensing, R&D collaboration, technology sharing or a potential
corporate transaction. Silence and Arrowhead are not currently engaged in any discussions
regarding a possible transaction. Silence will update the market at the appropriate
time should any discussions progress to a transaction.

Silence has acquired the stake using its existing cash resources. The stake will
not be consolidated and will be held as an investment asset on the Company’s balance
sheet, as such there are no profits to attribute to the assets being held. There
will be no contribution from the investment to Silence’s net loss. The Company confirms
that it reported net cash of £47.6 million as at 30 June in its interim results.

1 Exchange rate used 1.234

> **Ali Mortazavi, Chief Executive Officer of Silence Therapeutics plc, commented:**“
> We believe that the recent technological advancements in RNA therapeutics have
> been underestimated and undervalued. We are confident that the recent market approval
> of medicines in our field are the beginning of the emergence of an important new
> class of therapeutics. We look forward to opening a constructive dialogue with
> Arrowhead.”

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