Protalix Biotherapeutics and Secarna Pharmaceuticals Enter into Collaboration and Option Agreement

Rhea-AI Summary

Protalix (NYSE American: PLX) and Secarna Pharmaceuticals announced a collaboration and option agreement to discover antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies targeting multiple rare renal indications.

Protalix selected biological targets and Secarna will use its OligoCreator® AI platform to design and profile ASO candidates, with the partners aiming to advance programs from preclinical stages toward clinical trials. Secarna grants Protalix an exclusive option for a worldwide, milestone- and royalty-bearing license to develop, market, and commercialize any active compounds from the research.

Market Reality Check

$1.77 Last Close

Volume Volume 340,033 is below the 20-day average of 500,714 ahead of this collaboration news. low

Technical Shares at $1.81 were trading below the 200-day MA of $1.96 before the announcement.

Peers on Argus

PLX was up 4.02% pre-news while peers like AVTX (+7.3%) and OBIO (+4.21%) also rose, but SGMO slipped (-0.45%) and no peers appeared in the momentum scanner, suggesting stock-specific rather than broad sector-driven action.

Historical Context

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Nov 13	Q3 2025 earnings	Neutral	-9.8%	Mixed Q3 results, higher YTD revenue, rising R&D and regulatory updates.
Nov 06	Earnings date notice	Neutral	-6.7%	Announcement of timing and access details for Q3 2025 results call.
Sep 11	Investor conference	Neutral	+3.0%	Participation in Investor Summit Virtual highlighting growth strategy and opportunities.
Sep 02	Investor conference	Neutral	+5.8%	Presentation at H.C. Wainwright Global Investment Conference and investor meetings.
Aug 14	Q2 2025 earnings	Positive	-5.6%	Strong Q2 growth, net income, Elfabrio-driven sales and index additions.

Pattern Detected

Recent earnings with generally positive fundamentals have sometimes seen negative price reactions, while conference appearances have coincided with modest gains.

Recent Company History

Over the past few months, Protalix reported mixed but generally improving financials, with Q2 2025 revenue growth and a return to net income, followed by Q3 2025 results showing higher year-to-date revenue but a nine‑month net loss and rising R&D for PRX‑115. Regulatory headlines centered on Elfabrio dosing in Europe, and the company maintained visibility through investor conferences. This collaboration adds a new rare renal ASO research avenue alongside its existing rare disease pipeline and regulatory work.

Regulatory & Risk Context

Active S-3 Shelf Registration 2025-08-14

An active S-3/A shelf dated 2025-08-14 is pre-effective and was amended mainly to update the auditor consent, with the prospectus text unchanged. The company has used the shelf at least once, as indicated by a 424B5 filing on 2025-08-22, and may have remaining capacity for future capital raises under this framework.

Market Pulse Summary

This announcement expands Protalix’s rare disease strategy into rare kidney disorders through antisense oligonucleotide research with Secarna, giving PLX an exclusive option to license resulting candidates. It follows recent earnings showing revenue growth but continued R&D investment and regulatory focus on Elfabrio dosing. Investors may watch how quickly these preclinical ASO programs advance toward trials, how they complement assets like PRX‑115, and how the company balances pipeline growth with capital needs and prior regulatory commitments.

Key Terms

antisense oligonucleotide medical

"novel antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies against multiple targets for rare renal"

An antisense oligonucleotide is a small piece of synthetic genetic material designed to attach to specific molecules in the body’s cells, effectively blocking or modifying how genes are expressed. This technology is important because it can be used to develop targeted treatments for certain diseases, which may influence the value of biotech companies and the broader healthcare sector. Its development reflects advances in personalized medicine and gene-based therapies.

ASO medical

"novel antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies against multiple targets for rare renal"

An antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) is a short, lab-made strand of genetic material designed to bind a specific RNA message in cells and alter how a gene’s instructions are carried out. Investors care because ASO drugs aim to treat diseases by directly fixing or blocking faulty genetic signals; successful ASOs can create highly targeted, patent-protected treatments with big upside, while failures tend to be binary, making development risk and potential reward both high—like a custom key that either opens a valuable lock or doesn’t.

oligonucleotide therapeutics medical

"Secarna Pharmaceuticals GmbH & Co. KG, a company redefining the discovery and development of best-in-class oligonucleotide therapeutics"

Short, synthetic pieces of genetic material designed to change how a cell reads or uses a specific gene, like leaving a precise instruction note that tells a cell to make less, more, or a different form of a protein. Investors care because these therapies can target diseases other drugs cannot, offering high reward if successful, but they also carry significant development, regulatory and manufacturing risks that can make outcomes binary — either strong commercial value or failure.

RNA technologies medical

"first expansion into the rare kidney disease space leveraging RNA technologies, demonstrating"

RNA technologies are methods and products that use ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules to prevent, treat, or diagnose disease by instructing cells to make, silence, or detect specific proteins. Think of them as software updates for cells that can be written to produce desired effects, which matters to investors because these platforms can enable faster drug development, broad new markets, and recurring revenue streams if safety and regulatory approval are achieved.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

Partnership combines Protalix's rare disease and biologics expertise with Secarna's AI–powered OligoCreator^® platform to jointly develop pharmaceutical candidates for rare renal indications

Protalix is granted an exclusive option to license any active compounds derived from the research for potential clinical development and commercialization

CARMIEL, Israel and MARTINSRIED, Germany, Dec. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: PLX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, production and commercialization of innovative therapeutics for rare diseases with significant unmet needs, and Secarna Pharmaceuticals GmbH & Co. KG, a company redefining the discovery and development of best-in-class oligonucleotide therapeutics, today announced that they have entered into a collaboration and option agreement. Under this agreement, the companies have agreed to partner in the discovery of novel antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies against multiple targets for rare renal indications.

 

As part of the collaboration, Protalix has selected pharmaceutical targets with fundamental biological roles in rare renal indications and Secarna will apply OligoCreator^®, its proprietary AI-empowered oligonucleotide discovery and development platform, to design and profile ASO candidates against those targets. By jointly applying their research and development expertise, it is the Companies' goal to advance the programs from preclinical stage to clinical trials. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Secarna grants Protalix an option to an exclusive, worldwide milestone and royalty bearing license to further develop, market and commercialize therapeutic programs.

"This collaboration represents our first expansion into the rare kidney disease space leveraging RNA technologies, demonstrating the implementation of our previously updated research strategy," said Dror Bashan, Protalix's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We have started to leverage our development experience to increase our footprint as a rare disease therapeutics company. Secarna has established itself as a high-quality, innovative partner in the oligonucleotide field, and we are pleased to join forces to explore new biological pathways and advance promising targets toward clinical development, addressing significant unmet medical needs."

"We are truly excited to collaborate with Protalix, a company with a strong track record in developing and bringing therapies for rare diseases to the market," said Konstantin Petropoulos, Ph.D., Secarna Pharmaceuticals' Chief Executive Officer. "This collaboration combines Secarna's proven expertise in rapidly generating high-quality antisense candidates with Protalix's deep expertise in advancing programs to patients worldwide. Together, we aim to bring forward precise and differentiated oligonucleotide therapies for people affected by severe kidney disorders."

About Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc.

Protalix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, production and commercialization of innovative therapeutics for rare diseases. Protalix has researched, developed and currently manufactures two enzyme replacement therapies that are currently available in multiple markets. These therapies are recombinant therapeutic proteins expressed through Protalix's proprietary plant cell-based expression system, ProCellEx^®. ProCellEx is a unique plant cell-based system that enables Protalix to produce recombinant proteins in an industrial-scale manner with no exposure to mammalian cells. Protalix is the first company to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a protein produced through plant cell-based in suspension expression system. Protalix has licensed to Pfizer Inc. the worldwide development and commercialization rights to taliglucerase alfa, Elelyso^®, for the treatment of Gaucher disease, excluding in Brazil where Protalix retains full rights.

Protalix has partnered with Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. for the global development and commercialization of Elfabrio^® which was approved by both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in May 2023. Protalix's development pipeline includes, among others, two proprietary versions of recombinant therapeutic proteins that target established pharmaceutical markets: PRX–115, a plant cell-expressed recombinant PEGylated uricase for the treatment of uncontrolled gout; and PRX–119, a plant cell-expressed long-acting DNase I for the treatment of NETs-related diseases. To learn more, please visit www.protalix.com.

About Secarna Pharmaceuticals

Secarna Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company redefining the discovery and development of best-in-class oligonucleotide therapeutics, offering hope to patients facing conditions that are beyond the reach of current approaches and modalities. With the Company's proprietary AI-empowered OligoCreator^® platform, which includes multiple delivery technologies, Secarna identifies and characterizes oligonucleotide therapeutics with unparalleled speed and excellent safety and efficacy. By delivering these novel therapeutics to the cells, organs, or tissues where they are needed, targeted oligonucleotide therapies have the potential to revolutionize treatments for a wide range of difficult-to-treat disorders. Secarna's unique OligoCreator^® platform is leveraged to transform untreatable conditions into treatable ones, profoundly changing the future of medicine. www.secarna.com 

Protalix Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements

To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, all such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The terms "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "can," "continue," "could," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and other words or phrases of similar import are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual future experience and results to differ materially from the statements made. These statements are based on Protalix's current beliefs and expectations as to such future outcomes. Drug discovery and development involve a high degree of risk. Factors that might cause material differences include, among others: risks related to the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the collaboration and option agreement, including the possibility that the expected benefits will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period; the uncertainties inherent in the ability to meet anticipated clinical endpoints, commencement and/or completion dates for clinical trials, regulatory submission dates, regulatory approval dates and/or launch dates; risks associated with initial, preliminary or interim data; the possible disruption of Protalix's operations due to military actions conducted by Israel with the Hamas terrorist organization located in the Gaza Strip, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis which control parts of Yemen, Iran and others, including as a result of the disruption of the operations of certain regulatory authorities and of certain of Protalix's suppliers, collaborative partners, licensees, clinical trial sites, distributors and customers, and the risk that the current hostilities will result in a greater regional conflict; risks related to Protalix's expectations with respect to the projected market for the indications targeted in the collaboration; delays in the approval or potential rejection of any applications we file with the FDA, EMA or other health regulatory authorities and other risks relating to the review process; risks relating to Protalix's evaluation and pursuit of strategic partnerships; risks relating to Protalix's ability to manage its relationship with its collaborators, distributors or partners; risks related to the amount and sufficiency of Protalix's cash and cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits; Protalix's dependence on performance by third-party providers of services and supplies, including without limitation, clinical trial services; the inherent risks and uncertainties in developing drug platforms and products of the type we are developing; the impact of development of competing therapies and/or technologies by other companies; potential product liability risks, and risks of securing adequate levels of related insurance coverage; the possibility of infringing a third-party's patents or other intellectual property rights and the uncertainty of obtaining patents covering Protalix's products and processes and successfully enforcing Protalix's intellectual property rights against third-parties; and other factors described in Protalix's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The statements in this press release are valid only as of the date hereof and Protalix disclaims any obligation to update this information, except as may be required by law.

Investor Contact--Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc.

Mike Moyer, Managing Director
LifeSci Advisors
+1-617-308-4306
mmoyer@lifesciadvisors.com

Secarna Contact

Konstantin Petropoulos, PhD, MBA
CEO
Phone: +49 (0)89 215 46 375
info@secarna.com
LinkedIn  Secarna Pharmaceuticals

Media Inquiries--Secarna

MC Services AG
Anne Hennecke/Lydia Robinson-Garcia
+49 (0)211 52 92 52 15
secarna@mc-services.eu

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SOURCE Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc.; Secarna Pharmaceuticals

FAQ

What did Protalix (PLX) and Secarna announce on December 17, 2025?

They announced a collaboration and option agreement to discover ASO therapies for multiple rare kidney indications using Secarna's OligoCreator® platform.

What does the option granted to Protalix under the PLX-Secarna deal mean?

Protalix has an exclusive option to a worldwide, milestone- and royalty-bearing license to develop, market, and commercialize active compounds from the collaboration.

Which technology will Secarna apply in the collaboration with Protalix (PLX)?

Secarna will apply its AI-empowered oligonucleotide discovery platform, OligoCreator®, to design and profile antisense oligonucleotide candidates.

What stage do Protalix and Secarna plan to advance the ASO programs to?

The companies aim to advance selected programs from preclinical stage toward clinical trials.

Which indications are targeted by the Protalix (PLX) and Secarna collaboration?

The collaboration targets multiple rare renal (kidney) indications selected by Protalix for their fundamental biological roles.

Will the PLX-Secarna agreement include commercial terms and payments?

Yes; Protalix's option is described as an exclusive, worldwide, milestone- and royalty-bearing license, indicating commercial terms tied to milestones and royalties.