Eli Lilly and Company is acquire Adverum Biotechnologies Inc, giving it a Phase 3 gene therapy for a common eye disorder and expanding its portfolio of genetic medicines. The acquisition, priced at approximately $262 million, comes just five months after Lilly made a much bigger outlay for Verve Therapeutics Inc, a Boston, US based company, which has an in vivo gene editing product for cardiovascular disease. This acquisition was valued at $1 billion upfront.
The newest deal features the product, ixoberogene soroparvovec, a gene therapy for neovascular or wet age-related macular degeneration, an eye condition that causes blurred vision and potentially, loss of vision. The product is intended to be administered as a one-time treatment in a physician’s office. This compares with marketed treatments which are administered as frequently as every month for the lifetime of a patient. Currently, the leading product is aflibercept (Eylea), a recombinant fusion protein which inhibits the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF plays a leading role in the disease by promoting the growth of abnormal blood vessels beneath the macula.
Ixoberogene soroparvovec uses an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver a gene for aflibercept directly to retinal cells. Early clinical data for the product were promising. Reporting on the results of a Phase 1 study conducted between 2018 and 2020, The Lancet said the therapy had been well-tolerated and improved outcomes for the disease. “A single administration of an in-office gene therapy, with vectorised protein with an already established clinical benefit, has the potential to revolutionise the management of common ocular disorders requiring ongoing frequent therapeutic intervention,” authors of the study wrote in January 2024.
Lilly is to acquire Adverum for $3.56 per share in cash at closing for the company’s outstanding shares in addition to up to $8.91 per contingent value right share at $8.91 giving a total figure of up to $12.47. This is expected to result in the deal value of approximately $262 million. In addition, Lilly will extend a loan of $65 million to support ongoing trials of the gene therapy. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The loan from Lilly will offset Adverum’s weak cash position. The company’s shares have been depressed for some time following unfavourable data for an earlier gene therapy for a rare disease in 2018.
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