Published: June 18, 2010
The property consists of one block of 79 claims totalling 4,072.9hectares.As per the agreement and subject to Exchange approval, MacDonald Mineshas the option to acquire a 50% interest in the Assinica property, inconsideration of CA$2.5 million in exploration work to be carried outduring the next 4 years, and cash payments totalling $130,000. (“Virginia”)(TSX: VGQ) announces the signing of anagreement with MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. (“MacDonald Mines”) onthe Assinica property, located in the James Bay region, province ofQuebec. Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-lookingstatements and information as there can be no assurance that the plans,intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. – MediaDavid opyright 2009, Market Wire, All rights reserved.-0-. QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC, May 11 (MARKET WIRE) — Virginia Mines Inc. These statements areonly predictions.Forward-looking statements and information should be consideredcarefully.
RNAi drugs,such as siRNA, require delivery technology to be administeredsystemically. In preclinical studies, Tekmira’s SNALP (stable nucleicacid-lipid particles) technology has been shown to be a safe andeffective way to deliver RNAi drugs to disease sites. The technology, representing one of the mostpromising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug discovery,was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Roche and Tekmira expect an IND for thefirst product candidate to be filed before the end of 2010.Tekmira will develop and manufacture the drug product for use in allpreclinical studies and both companies will collaborate on thepreclinical testing. The agreement also provides that Tekmira willmanufacture one batch of clinical product for a phase 1 clinical trial.About RNAi and SNALPRNAi drugs have the potential to treat human diseases by “switching-off”disease causing genes. Louis Renzetti, Head of RNA Therapeutics at Roche, said “We areenthusiastic about the potential of RNAi therapeutics for patients withhard-to-treat diseases. We believe Tekmira’s SNALP is the leading lipidnanoparticle delivery technology and we are confident that Tekmira’sresearch and manufacturing capabilities will help us to meet our productdevelopment objectives.”Roche will use Tekmira’s SNALP technology for two RNAi productcandidates.
Each of the product candidates will be comprised of Rocheproprietary small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) encapsulated in a Tekmiraproprietary SNALP formulation. Thisagreement is consistent with our strategy of working with leadingpharmaceutical companies to help them advance products based on our SNALPtechnology, and to leverage this work in order to advance our ownproducts.”"At the same time, the funding from Roche will further strengthen ourbalance sheet and extend our cash resources as we execute on our businessplan of advancing novel RNAi products,” said Dr Murray.Dr. Murray, Tekmira’s President and CEO, said “We are extremelypleased to be working with Roche, a global pioneer in the development ofimportant therapeutic products and a leader in the RNAi field. Both of the product candidates will be based on Tekmira’s stablenucleic acid-lipid particle (SNALP) technology.Under the terms of the product development agreement, Roche will payTekmira up to US$18.4 million to support the advancement of the productcandidates to the filing of Investigational New Drug (IND) applications.Tekmira is also eligible to receive up to US$32 million in milestonesplus royalties on product sales as the first two products are advancedthrough development and commercialization based on Roche’s access toTekmira’s intellectual property under previously announced agreements.Dr Mark J. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, May 11 (MARKET WIRE) — Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (TSX: TKM) announced today that ithas entered into a product development agreement with global healthcarecompany Roche (SWX: ROG.VX)(SWX: RO.S)(OTCQX: RHHBY) to advance Roche’sfirst two RNA interference (RNAi) product candidates into human clinicaltesting. These forward-looking statementsinvolve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differmaterially from those statements. Those risks and uncertainties include,but are not limited to, changing market conditions, and other risksdetailed from time-to-time in the Company’s ongoing filings.