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REGN > An Update on Avalanche Biotechnologies: A Potential Longer-Lasting Wet AMD Treatment?

From Irv Aron's blog... http://irvaronsjournal.blogspot.com/

There is breaking news this week about Avalanche Biotechnologies and I would like to share it, as well as a brief update on the clinical trial underway using their proprietary gene therapy approach to treating the wet form of AMD.

(Editors Note: For a comprehensive look at the company, its people, and technology, please take a look at my original writeup, placed online in late February 2012: A Novel Gene Therapy Approach to Treating the Wet Form of AMD: The BioFactoryTM From Avalanche Biotech.)

Now for the breaking news. On May 5th, in a joint announcement, Avalanche and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said that they were undertaking a broad collaboration “to discover, develop and commercialize novel gene therapy products for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases. The collaboration covers novel gene therapy vectors and proprietary molecules, discovered jointly by Avalanche and Regeneron, and developed using the Avalanche Ocular BioFactoryTM, an adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based, proprietary, next-generation platform for the discovery and development and delivery of gene therapy vectors for ophthalmology.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Avalanche will receive an upfront cash payment, contingent payments of up to $640 million upon achievement of certain development and regulatory milestones, plus a royalty on worldwide net sales of collaboration products. The collaboration covers up to eight distinct therapeutic targets, and Regeneron will have exclusive worldwide rights for each product it moves forward in clinical development. In addition, Avalanche has the option to share in development costs and profits for products directed toward two collaboration therapeutic targets selected by Avalanche.

As part of the agreement, Regeneron has a time-limited right of first negotiation for certain rights to AVA-101, Avalanche's gene therapy product targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) currently under development for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), upon completion of the ongoing Phase 2a trial.

"We look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with Avalanche, a leader in the field of next-generation gene therapy technologies," said George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron and President of Regeneron Laboratories. "This collaboration highlights the commitment by Regeneron to invest in potentially breakthrough therapies that could benefit patients with sight-threatening diseases."

"We are excited to work with Regeneron to discover and develop novel gene therapy medicines for serious eye diseases," said Thomas W. Chalberg, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Avalanche Biotechnologies. "The collaboration will bring together Avalanche's novel platform technology with Regeneron's proprietary molecules and research capabilities, with the goal of creating a new class of next-generation biologics in ophthalmology. Regeneron is a terrific partner for their scientific leadership, as well as their product development capabilities and commercialization track-record."

For those of you not familiar with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, they are a leading science-based biopharmaceutical company based in Tarrytown, New York that discovers, invents, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines for the treatment of serious medical conditions. Regeneron commercializes medicines for eye diseases, colorectal cancer, and a rare inflammatory condition, and has product candidates in development in other areas of high unmet medical need, including hypercholesterolemia, oncology, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis.

In the eye disease field, their major product is Eylea, an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agent that is intravitrealy injected for the treatment of wet AMD, in competition with Roche/Genentech's Avastin, and Lucentis.

The problem with the use of the current anti-VEGF drugs is the need for up to eight to twelve injections yearly, to maintain the gains in visual acuity and/or prevent the re-occurrence of the underlying neovascular degeneration. The reason for the collaboration with Avalanche is that its BioFactoryTM is expected to deliver a therapeutic protein to combat wet AMD for at least 18 months and, potentially for several years, from a single injection. (For more about this technology, again, please see my initial writeup.)

And that leads to the recent clinical trial update provided by founder and CEO, Thomas Chalberg at the the Angeogenisis, Exudation and Degeneration 2014 Conference, held in Miami, FL on February 8, 2014:

[DewDiligence]

Another gene-therapy deal—Bayer inks collaboration with (private) Dimension Therapeutics for hemophilia-A:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bayer-healthcare-dimension-therapeutics-develop-101200762.html

…Dimension Therapeutics will receive an upfront payment of $20 million and will be eligible for potential development and commercialization milestone payments of up to $232 million. Dimension Therapeutics will be responsible for all pre-clinical development activities and the Phase I/IIa clinical trial, with funding from Bayer.

Depending on the results of the Phase I/IIa clinical trial, Bayer will conduct the confirmatory Phase III trial, make all regulatory submissions, and will have worldwide rights to commercialize the potential future product for the treatment of hemophilia A. Dimension Therapeutics is eligible to receive tiered royalties based on product sales.