Avista, Roche partner on gene therapy program for ophthalmic conditions
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Avista Therapeutics and Roche will partner to develop adeno-associated virus gene therapy vectors for ocular diseases, according to a press release.
Roche will have the right to evaluate and license novel capsids from Avista and will be responsible for preclinical, clinical and commercialization activities for gene therapy programs using these capsids, according to the release. The capsids will be distinct from Avista’s internal pipeline.
Avista, which was recently spun out from UPMC, will be paid $7.5 million upfront and is eligible to receive further payments during the research phase, as well as clinical and sales milestone payments and product royalties. The deal value may exceed $1 billion.
“Traditional therapies for retinal dystrophies address only symptoms and complications, neglecting the underlying biology of the diseases, and while current vector technologies hold promise, they have been greatly limited in their ability to target key cell types across the retina,” Robert Lin, PhD, CEO of Avista, said in the release. “Avista was founded to solve this problem, and our innovative [single-cell adeno-associated virus engineering] platform allows us to deliver gene therapy payloads through intravitreal injection to treat a full range of retinal diseases with reduced immunogenicity.”
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