Sangamo Therapeutics has entered a licensing agreement with Genentech to develop genomic medicines to treat neurodegenerative conditions. As part of the deal, Sangamo will receive $50 million in licensing fees and near-term milestone payments, and will be eligible to earn up to $1.9 billion in development and commercial milestone payments covering multiple therapeutic candidates.
Sangamo will grant Genentech an exclusive license to its proprietary zinc finger repressor technology, which enables the modulation of epigenetic targets. Genentech will access zinc finger repressors directed to the tau gene, which is involved in tauopathies such as Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a second undisclosed neurology target.
For both targets, Genentech will also be able to access Sangamo’s neurotropic adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid for the delivery of the therapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier.
“We are uniquely positioned with our collective experience, expertise and resources in neurological research to explore transformative approaches, including gene therapy, that treat neurodegenerative diseases,” said Boris L. Zaïtra, Head of Roche Corporate Business Development. “Our relentless pursuit of scientific innovation is taking us into areas of enormous unmet medical need and progress in treating diseases of the brain and nervous system.”
The terms of the agreement establish that Sangamo will be responsible for completing certain preclinical activities, while Genentech will take over all clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization activities.
Sangamo Therapeutics’ drug development pipeline includes multiple in-house and partnered programs exploring the therapeutic potential of its capsid delivery platform and epigenetic regulation technology, including a gene therapy candidate for Fabry disease that is currently in the phase 1/2 stage.
“Sangamo has been pioneering the field of genomic medicine for years to address devastating neurodegenerative diseases with limited current treatment options,” said Sandy Macrae, Chief Executive Officer of Sangamo Therapeutics.
“We strongly believe in the power of our zinc finger technology to regulate the expression of key genes involved in disease. The recent discovery of our industry-leading intravenously delivered AAV capsid, STAC-BBB, has the potential to address longstanding challenges in delivering therapeutics to the central nervous system. We are excited to share this powerful combination with Genentech to advance potential treatment options for devastating neurodegenerative disorders, and we are hopeful this could be the first of multiple capsid collaborations to come with other partners.”
