Asklepios Biopharmaceutical Inc., a private development-stage biotechnology company, has entered into a cross license agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to develop and commercialize gene therapy based treatments.
Through the agreement, Asklepios Biopharmaceutical will gain exclusive access to selected recombinant adeno-associated virus vector serotypes that GSK licensed from the University of Pennsylvania for the treatment of three orphan drug indications, including Muscular Dystrophy, heart failure suffered by Muscular Dystrophy patients and Hemophilia B.
Other terms of the agreement, including the technology licensed to GlaxoSmithKline and the monetary terms related thereto, were not disclosed.
"We are looking forward to obtaining this license to address two complex diseases," said Sheila Mikhail, chief executive officer of Asklepios Biopharmaceutical . This license will bring a combined platform of technologies to the Muscular Dystrophy and Hemophilia communities that will enhance patient care in these two important orphan drug diseases."
Asklepios Biopharmaceutical is currently conducting a Phase I clinical trial, which has been financially supported by the Muscular Dystrophy Association, using Biostrophin for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The most common form of muscular dystrophy, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy results from a mutation in the dystrophin gene, and is characterized by rapidly progressive muscle weakness.
Young boys suffering from this disease lose the ability to walk usually by age twelve and due to largely to heart failure and respiratory disorders resulting from the disease, die in their early twenties.
There is currently no life sustaining treatment for this genetically inherited disease. Biostrophin uses Asklepios Biopharmaceutical's Biological NanoParticle technology, which is engineered from rAAV and other parvoviruses, to deliver a genetically re-engineered mini-gene to express dystrophin and treat DMD at the molecular level. BNPs are designed to deliver therapeutic genetic materials to the patient's muscle cells become bioreactors which produce long-term therapeutic benefit.
Source: News Release