Tech Transfer Deals, May 2016
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Tech Transfer Deals column provides a monthly update on technology transfer deals, reporting licensing agreements between companies and universities or other research institutions within the In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals sectors. This month’s column covers deals announced March through April 2016.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AbbVie Inc.
University of Chicago
AbbVie, U. Chicago ally in cancer research
In a five-year collaboration, AbbVie Inc. is teaming up with the University of Chicago in cancer research and drug discovery. (Apr.)
Representatives from both parties will form a joint steering committee that will be responsible to choosing research projects to work on. AbbVie has an option to license exclusive rights to any discoveries by the University of Chicago resulting from the deal. The company will provide funding for preclinical research, clinical trials, and potential future programs at the university. AbbVie researchers will gain access to data commons technology developed at the university. University of Chicago physicians and scientists will be able to participate in AbbVie-sponsored clinical trials, get access to AbbVie-developed therapies for use in preclinical research, and work directly with the firm's R&D teams to promote scientific knowledge exchange. Researchers from both will participate in an annual symposium. Initial focus areas will be in breast, lung, prostate, colorectal, and hematological cancers. AbbVie and the university have previously worked together on projects including immunology and oncology.
Acucela Inc.
University of Manchester
Acucela licenses gene therapy from Univ. of Manchester
Acucela Inc. licensed exclusive development and commercialization rights to the University of Manchester's human rhodopsin-based optogenetic gene therapy for retinal degenerative disease such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP). (Apr.)
The licensed therapy, which was discovered by a team led by U. Manchester's Dr. Jasmina Cehajic-Kapetanovic and professors Robert Lucas and Paul Bishop, uses a viral vector to transduce the ON-bipolar cells (retinal neurons connected to the rod photoreceptors) with human rhodopsin, which is a light-sensitive protein expressed in the rod photoreceptors. In preclinical studies, the candidate demonstrated its ability to restore vision in a mouse model of RP, a condition for which there are currently no effective therapies. Acucela will study the technology across various genetic mutations in RP and related conditions, with the goal of developing a treatment to restore some level of vision in blind patients.
Antegrin Therapeutics Inc.
St. Louis University
Antegrin gets anti-fibrotic compounds from St. Louis Univ.
Antegrin Therapeutics Inc. (therapies for fibrotic diseases) licensed rights from St. Louis University to orally bioavailable antagonists of several pro-fibrotic integrins. (Apr.)
The compounds originated at the university's Center for World Health & Medicine. One of them demonstrated preclinical proof-of-concept. It's believed that multiple members of the integrin family of cell-surface receptors are capable of activating the TGFß cytokine responsible for fibrosis. Antegrin Therapeutics' pipeline already includes integrin antagonists that show potential in treating lung, liver, renal, pancreatic, and surgical implant fibrosis. The company is initially focused in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Nobilis Therapeutics Inc.
Partners HealthCare System Inc.
Nobilis licenses potential PTSD treatment from Harvard affiliates
Harvard University-associated Partners HealthCare System Inc. (a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School) licensed inhalation-based therapeutics firm Nobilis Therapeutics Inc. exclusive rights to intellectual property involving the use of noninvasive noble gas-containing mixtures to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). (Mar.)
In a recent study, Edward Meloni, PhD (of [McLean Hospital], an HMS-affiliated psychiatric hospital), demonstrated a significant reduction in fear symptoms in a rat model after exposure to a xenon gas-containing mixture. Typically used for general anesthesia, xenon is a noble gas with an already-proven safety profile and has shown to inhibit activation of NMDA receptors (responsible for learning, memory, and also fear memory reconsolidation). Nobilis is developing inert gas mixtures (such as xenon or argon, alone or in combination with other gases) for controlled administration through portable standardized delivery systems. Nobilis expects to initiate human trials in PTSD sometime this year and also hopes to apply the IP to drugs for other psychiatric disorders including autism and ADHD.
OptiBiotix Health PLC
SkinBiotix Ltd.
University of Manchester
OptiBiotix, U. Manchester create SkinBiotix JV
OptiBiotix Health PLC and the University of Manchester created a jointly-owned company called SkinBiotix Ltd., using exclusive rights OptiBiotix gained to the university's skin health intellectual property. (Mar.)
OptiBiotix invested £260k ($367k) and will own 52% of SkinBiotix, while the university will own the remaining 48%. The JV will focus on developing therapeutics within dermatology (including eczema and psoriasis), hospital-acquired infections, and wound care. The IP is based on translational research conducted by the university's Catherine O’Neill, PhD, and Andrew McBain, PhD. Dr. O'Neill's group is studying the structure and regulation of protein complexes found between individual epithelial cells known as epithelial tight junctions, which act as barriers to the passage of molecules between cells, while Dr. McBain's team is researching the links between bacterial physiology and ecology and human health and disease using in vitro modelling and characterization of microbial communities. OptiBiotix is developing compounds that modify the human microbiome through two platforms: Optiscreen (high-throughput screening and optimization to identify microbes within with metabolic pathways that interact with human physiological processes) and OptiBiotix (generates and screens novel compounds for their ability to modulate the human microbiome and its microbial end products to potentially influence host metabolism and physiology for disease prevention and management).The deal enables OptiBiotix to leverage these technologies, along with the IP gained from the university, into a new therapeutic category outside its current disease focus areas of hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and diabetes (for which it is already creating a pipeline of microbiome modulators).
St. Louis University
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.
Ultragenyx signs rare disease option deal with St. Louis Univ.
Rare disease-focused Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. entered a three-year deal option deal with St. Louis University involving the development of small molecules for treating facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). (Mar.)
SLU’s Center for World Health & Medicine seeks to discover and perform clinical studies on certain small molecule candidates aimed at FSHD, a condition for which there is currently no FDA-approved treatment. Ultragenyx gets the exclusive option to license any existing and future intellectual property coming out of the agreement. FSHD is an inherited, autosomal dominant muscle disease that causes progressive weakening and loss of skeletal muscle in both adults and children. The parties have collaborated in the past. In early 2012 Ultragenyx in-licensed an enzyme replacement therapy from St. Louis University aimed at mucopolysaccharidosis Type VII (MPS VII).
RESEARCH, ANALYTICAL EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Molecular Biology GMBH
StemCell Technologies Inc.
StemCell licenses IMBA's technology to model neurological disease
Canadian life sciences company StemCell Technologies Inc. licensed exclusive rights (for research use) to the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Molecular Biology GMBH's (IMBA) cerebral organoid culture systems. (Apr.)
Derived from patient-specific induced human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), IMBA's cerebral organoids are three-dimensional multicellular structures that mimic brain tissue in vitro. These systems give researchers insight into early human embryonic brain development and enable them to model neurological diseases (such as microcephaly) for use in drug screening and target validation. This research was led by IMBA stem cell scientist Jürgen Knoblich and Medical Research Council's Madeline Lancaster, PhD (formerly at IMBA), who specializes in human brain development. StemCell hopes to use this cerebral organoid technologies to build up its own portfolio of cell culture and tissue culture media, including NeuroCult (neuronal and neural stem cell culture), STEMdiff (hPSC-based neurological modeling), and BrainPhys (medium for culturing primary neurons and generating and maturing hPSC-derived neurons).