Cell therapy weekly: Kriya launches gene therapy program for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
This week: Lineage and Eterna Therapeutics (both CA, USA) begin the next phase of their strategic partnership, MaaT Pharma’s (Lyon, France) adjunctive therapy receives orphan drug designation, and Kriya’s (CA, USA) acquisition of Tramontane (Barcelona, Spain) will see the continuation of their lead project of developing a gene therapy for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
The news highlights:
- Next stage of the Lineage and Eterna partnership targets cell transplants for neurology indications
- MaaT Pharma’s adjunctive therapy receives orphan drug designation from the European Medicines Agency
- Kriya acquires Tramontane and launches gene therapy program for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
Next stage of the Lineage and Eterna partnership targets cell transplants for neurology indications
Lineage Cell Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing allogenic cell therapies, and Eterna Therapeutics Inc., an mRNA-focused cell engineering biotechnology company, have begun the next stage of their strategic partnership. This will see Eterna develop hypoimmune iPSC lines, which Lineage will evaluate for differentiation into cell transplant candidates for neurology indications.
“This collaboration reflects our effort to broaden the application of our cell therapy platform and our plans for future success in this growing field. We look forward to leveraging our expertise to develop innovative cell transplant therapies that have the potential to transform the treatment of a wide range of diseases by capitalizing on the convergence of directed cell differentiation and manufacturing with modern gene editing technology,” commented Brian Culley, Chief Executive Officer of Lineage.
MaaT Pharma’s adjunctive therapy receives orphan drug designation from the European Medicines Agency
MaaT Pharma, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced that the European Medicines Agency has granted their adjunctive therapy the status of orphan drug designation. This status is reserved for medicines that treat rare, life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases and grants market exclusivity, waivers, clinical protocol assistance and reductions in regulatory fees. The therapy, MaaT033, aims to ensure optimal microbiota function in patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to improve patient survival rates.
“We look forward to continuing to collaborate closely with the regulatory agencies to accelerate the development of safe and innovative microbiome therapies,” commented Philippe Moyen, the Chief Operating Officer of Maat Pharma.
Kriya acquires Tramontane and launches gene therapy program for non–alcoholic steatohepatitis
The biopharmaceutical Kriya Therapeutics, Inc. has acquired the metabolic and neurodegenerative gene therapy developer Tramontane Therapeutics, Inc. The acquisition of Tramontane’s Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 portfolio will see Kriya continue Tramontane’s lead program of developing an AAV gene therapy to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Shankar Ramaswamy, Chief Executive Officer of Kriya, added “We are very impressed with the data associated with the Tramontane FGF21 program, which has consistently established strong efficacy and durability across multiple validated animal models of obesity and NASH.”
