Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARWR) today announced a $25M milestone payment from Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN). This milestone was triggered by the first subject enrolled in Amgen’s Phase 3 trial of olpasiran. Arrowhead is further eligible to receive up to an additional $535 million in aggregate development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments from Amgen and Royalty Pharma plc (NASDAQ:RPRX).
“We are pleased with the great progress on the clinical development of olpasiran, which was developed using Arrowhead’s proprietary TRiMTM technology,” said Christopher Anzalone, Ph.D., Arrowhead’s president and CEO. “This is an important milestone for the program and for Arrowhead, as this is the second TRiMTM-enabled candidate to enter Phase 3 studies. Importantly, as our pipeline continues to advance expeditiously, we anticipate multiple Arrowhead therapies will also reach Phase 3 trials over the coming year.”
Olpasiran is a small interfering RNA (siRNA) originally developed by Arrowhead using its proprietary Targeted RNAi Molecule, or TRiM, platform and licensed to Amgen in 2016. It is designed to lower levels of lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)), a genetically determined risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Phase 2 study results from the OCEAN(a)-DOSE study were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2022, where olpasiran demonstrated a significant and sustained reduction in Lp(a) levels over 36 weeks. These data were simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine on November 6, 2022.
