CANbridge Pharmaceuticals has secured control of gene therapies based on LogicBio Therapeutics’ liver-targeting viral delivery capsid. The agreement gives CANbridge worldwide rights to gene therapy treatments for Fabry and Pompe diseases.
LogicBio developed the gene therapies using its adeno-associated virus (AAV) sL65. The capsid is the product of LogicBio’s sAAVy platform, which is designed to facilitate the assessment of tissue tropism in clinically predictive models and the creation of capsids with high functional transduction, low immunogenicity and high manufacturing yield.
CANbridge has seen promise in the technology, leading it to pay $10 million upfront for the exclusive global rights to the Fabry and Pompe gene therapy candidates. The agreement gives CANbridge the option to license two other sL65 gene therapies and pick up the Greater China rights to LogicBio’s lead candidate LB-001.
The opt-in fees are part of a package of potential payments that also includes clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. If all the payments are triggered, LogicBio will reel in $581 million through the CANbridge agreement. CANbridge committed to the package in the belief LogicBio’s AAVs and other technologies can unlock the potential of genetic medicines.
“LogicBio’s cutting-edge capsid and gene editing technologies, which have the potential to address the limitations of existing therapies, supplies a vital component to the CANbridge long-term rare disease capability,” CANbridge CEO James Xue, Ph.D., said in a statement.
The deal provides external validation of LogicBio’s capsid work. In nonhuman primates, LogicBio has linked sL65 to higher expression of factor IX for the treatment of hemophilia B than AAV8 or its own LK03. Based on its preclinical findings, LogicBio has claimed its capsids can achieve significant improvements over the benchmark AAVs that support delivery of the current crop of clinical-phase gene therapy candidates.