Capsida to receive a $40 million license payment and is eligible for additional milestones and royalties
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Jan. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Capsida Biotherapeutics (“Capsida”) today announced that AbbVie has exercised an option for the first neurodegenerative disease program under their ongoing collaboration. Capsida will receive a $40 million license payment and is eligible for additional milestones and royalties.
The opt-in decision was based on results from primate studies using Capsida’s engineered adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids to deliver AbbVie’s novel therapeutic cargo intravenously (IV). Broad neuronal expression was achieved while simultaneously de-targeting the liver and dorsal root ganglia. AbbVie will be responsible for advancing the program into IND-enabling studies and performing clinical trials, while Capsida will be responsible for manufacturing.
“Moving the first neurodegeneration program forward is a testament to the successful and collaborative work between Capsida and AbbVie. We look forward to continuing to advance this promising therapy for patients,” said Peter Anastasiou, Chief Executive Officer of Capsida. “AbbVie’s option exercise demonstrates the potential high performance of Capsida’s IV-delivered AAV technology. In addition, we are looking forward to advancing two of our wholly owned CNS programs into clinical trials in the first half of 2025.”
“Traditional AAV capsids for the treatment of neurological disorders, have faced challenges such as limited targeting specificity, reduced efficiency in crossing the blood-brain barrier and off-target effects,” said Jonathon Sedgwick, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Global Head, Discovery Research at AbbVie. “The development of neurotropic capsids is important for addressing such challenges, which is designed to enable more targeted delivery of genetic medicine therapeutics to the central nervous system. We are pleased with the progress of our collaboration with Capsida and look forward to continuing to advance this work together to help patients with neurodegenerative diseases.”
The milestone is part of a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement announced in 2021, in which Capsida and AbbVie partnered to develop targeted genetic medicine therapies for three neurodegenerative diseases. The collaboration is based on Capsida’s novel AAV engineering platform and IV-administered capsids that broadly transduce neurons across the brain and are the backbone of Capsida’s wholly owned pipeline. The other two collaboration programs continue to advance, and one program includes the potential for Capsida to co-develop and co-commercialize upon AbbVie’s opting-in. Under the terms of the original agreement, Capsida previously received $80 million up-front in cash and a $10 million equity investment. For the newly licensed program, Capsida is eligible to receive additional development and commercial milestones plus tiered royalties on future product sales.
About Capsida Biotherapeutics
Capsida Biotherapeutics is a fully integrated gene therapy company with a central nervous system (CNS) pipeline consisting of disease modifying and potentially curative treatments for rare and more common diseases across all ages. Capsida’s wholly owned pipeline includes a potential first-in-class treatment for STXBP1 developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, best-in-class treatment for Parkinson’s disease associated with GBA mutations, and best-in-class therapy for Friedreich’s ataxia. In addition to its wholly owned programs, the Company has validating partnerships with AbbVie, Lilly, and CRISPR Therapeutics. Capsida was founded in 2019 by lead investors Versant Ventures and Westlake Village BioPartners and originated from groundbreaking research in the laboratory of Viviana Gradinaru, Ph.D., a neuroscience professor at Caltech. Visit us at www.capsida.com.
SOURCE Capsida Biotherapeutics
