Benzinga | May 4, 2021 07:22AM EDT

ProQR Therapeutics And Yarrow Biotechnology Announce Exclusive Worldwide License And Discovery Collaboration For Undisclosed Target; ProQR Eligible To Receive Upfront And Milestone Payments Of $115M

* Yarrow Biotechnology, Inc., a newly formed biotechnology company backed by RTW Investments, LP, will lead development of the program

* ProQR Therapeutics is eligible to receive upfront and milestone payments of up to $115 million plus royalties on future sales by Yarrow for an exclusive worldwide license and discovery collaboration on a non-ophthalmology target

NEW YORK, New York, LEIDEN, Netherlands & CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RTW Investments, LP ("RTW"), a global, full life-cycle investment firm that focuses on identifying transformational and disruptive innovations across the biopharmaceutical and medical technologies sectors, and ProQR Therapeutics N.V. (NASDAQ:PRQR) (ProQR), a company dedicated to changing lives through the creation of transformative RNA therapies for genetic eye diseases, today announced that Yarrow Biotechnology, Inc. ("Yarrow") , a company newly created by RTW, has in-licensed exclusive rights to ProQR's antisense oligonucleotide technology (ASO) to develop and commercialize potential therapies for an undisclosed non-ophthalmic target. Yarrow is focused on developing ASO-based therapeutics for disorders with high unmet need.

Roderick Wong, MD, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of RTW, said: "We believe RNA-based therapies hold great promise to treat genetically-defined diseases. We are excited to partner with ProQR to in-license the first target to be developed in Yarrow's pipeline."

Under the terms of the agreement, ProQR is eligible to receive up to $115 million of upfront and milestone payments, plus single digit percentage royalties on the net sales of any resulting products during the royalty term. ProQR will also have the right to receive an undisclosed percentage of equity in the form of shares of common stock of Yarrow. ProQR will be responsible for certain preclinical activities with reimbursement for the research costs by Yarrow, while Yarrow will be responsible for continuing development of the program and commercialization activities.

Gerard Platenburg, Chief Innovation Officer at ProQR, will join Yarrow's board of directors.

Peter Fong, PhD, Head of Company Creation at RTW, said: "Our partnership with ProQR fits perfectly into Yarrow's mission to develop first-in-class ASO-based therapies for genetically-defined diseases. We look forward to a long and productive partnership."

Daniel A. De Boer, Founder and CEO of ProQR, said: "As we focus ProQR on our core genetic eye disease strategy, we are pleased to partner with Yarrow to advance our technology in applications outside the eye, while generating value from this partnership and the broad applicability of our platform."