San Francisco's Audentes Inks Deal to Buy Cardiogen Sciences

San Francisco's Audentes Therapeutics Inks Deal to Buy Cardiogen Sciences
September 1, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

San Francisco-based Audentes Therapeutics, announced today that it will buy Cardiogen Sciences, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. Financial details were not disclosed.

Audentes focuses on developing and commercializing adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies for rare diseases. It currently has three products in development, AT001 for X-Linked Myotubular Myopathy (XLMTM), AT002 for Pompe disease, and AT003 for CASQ2 subtype of Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia (CASQ2-CPVT).

Cardiogen, founded in 2014, focuses on therapeutics to treat inherited arrhythmias. The company was founded with $526,000 in seed funding.

“We are thrilled to combine Cardiogen’s innovative programs with our resources and passionate team to advance AAV gene therapy for patients with inherited cardiac arrhythmias,” said Matthew Patterson, president and chief executive officer of Audentes in a statement. “Expanding our portfolio through this acquisition aligns strongly with our strategy of developing AAV gene therapies for serious, rare diseases that have compelling pre-clinical proof-of-concept data and the potential for accelerated clinical development. In addition, we are very excited to have Drs. Lange and Priori partnering with the Audentes team as their world class expertise in inherited cardiac diseases and cardiac drug development will be invaluable in helping Audentes rapidly advance our new programs.”

In December 2014, Audentes closed on a $42.5 million Series B financing round. It was led by Deerfield Management and joined by Sofinnova Ventures, Venrock and current investors OrbiMed, 5AM Ventures and Versant Ventures.

In May 2015, the company presented data on its lead development programs at the 18th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) held in New Orleans. Data regarding AT001 in a dog model of XLMTM indicated prolonged survival and correction of severe muscle pathology. Study results on AT002 compared the effects of AAV-GAA gene therapy and treatment with enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) in Pompe disease in a mouse model. Improvements in cardiac function and diaphragmatic contractile function were observed.

As part of the acquisition, Louis Lange will join the Audentes board of directors and Silvia Priori will act as a Scientific Advisor.

“Patients with inherited cardiac arrhythmias, many of whom are children, currently lack effective, specific treatments for CASQ2-CPVT, frequently resulting in significant morbidity, poor quality of life and, sadly, early mortality,” said Lange in a statement. “Our mission at Cardiogen has been to eradicate life threatening arrhythmias through selective cardiac gene therapy, and we believe that we will have the best opportunity to fulfill this mission through the combined efforts of the Audentes and Cardiogen teams.”

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