Grünenthal Joins Munich-based Cluster for Nucleic Acid Therapeutics
Aachen, Germany – Grünenthal, a global leader in pain management and related diseases, announced today its official partnership with the Cluster for Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Munich (CNATM) on Thursday, July 16, 2026. This collaboration will bring together leading universities, research institutions, biotech companies, and industry partners to accelerate next-generation nucleic acid therapeutics into innovative treatments that can make a meaningful difference for patients.
The partnership with CNATM will provide Grünenthal with a valuable platform to enhance its oligonucleotide drug discovery capabilities and connect with one of Germany’s leading academic and biotech innovation ecosystems. Grünenthal has strategically built in-house capabilities over the past few years to advance oligonucleotide modalities, such as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and small interfering RNA (siRNA), as potential therapeutic approaches for pain and related neurological indications.
One of Grünenthal’s key objectives for this collaboration is to improve the understanding of oligonucleotide design, delivery, and cellular activity, with a particular focus on targeted delivery of siRNA and related approaches to neuronal cells and tissues relevant for pain, epilepsy, and neurodegenerative disorders. By working closely with CNATM partners, Grünenthal aims to leverage the cluster’s strong academic expertise and active biotech innovation network in Munich and across Germany to accelerate progress in this complex and rapidly evolving field. The collaboration also aims to foster innovation across the cluster, generating scientific insights, technologies, and therapeutic concepts that could be further developed internally, through partnerships, or new biotech ventures.
Uli Brödl, Chief Scientific Officer at Grünenthal, expressed excitement about the collaboration, stating, “We look forward to collaborating with our CNATM partners and connecting cutting-edge academic science with a patient-outcome-focused industry perspective. With CNATM, we are joining a group of like-minded experts striving to address unmet needs through innovation, and I am delighted for our teams to advance novel approaches with the leading members from the German and international nucleic acid therapeutics community.”
Through this cooperation, Grünenthal will have access to an innovation network comprising scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, the Technical University of Munich, the universities of Regensburg and Würzburg, the Helmholtz Centre Munich, and 14 companies driving innovation in genetic medicine from the wider Munich region.
The Cluster for Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Munich (CNATM) is part of the Clusters4Future initiative and has received funding from the Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR) (Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space), underscoring its national strategic relevance. CNATM brings together scientific strengths in nucleic acid chemistry, biology, pharmacology, formulation, delivery, and translational medicine to help turn modalities such as ASOs, siRNA, and related nucleic acid technologies into more effective drugs.
Grünenthal is a science-based, fully integrated pharmaceutical company with a long track record of bringing innovative treatments and state-of-the-art technologies to patients worldwide. The company’s purpose is to change lives for the better, and innovation is their passion. With headquarters in Aachen, Germany, Grünenthal has affiliates in 28 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. Their products are available in approximately 100 countries, and in 2025, they employed around 4,100 people and achieved revenues of €1.8 billion.
For further information:
Christopher Jansen
Global Communications at Grünenthal
Email: christopher.jansen@grunenthal.com
