UCL Business, the wholly-owned technology transfer company of UCL, has teamed up with investment group Syncona to create a new biopharmaceutical company called Freeline Therapeutics, which will focus on development and commercialisation of gene therapies for bleeding and other debilitating disorders.
With an investment from Syncona of £25 million in Series A financing and from its base at UCL Royal Free London Hospital, the company will work on gene therapies based on its next-generation adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy platform developed by Amit Nathwani, Professor of Haematology at UCL, the new firm’s chief scientific officer.
AAV is a small virus which infects humans but is not currently known to cause disease, causing a very mild immune response. Properties including its ability to infect both dividing and dormant cells make it an attractive candidate for creating viral vectors for gene therapy.
Freeline’s AAV gene therapy platform builds on the successful haemophilia B Phase I/II trial in which all ten treated haemophilia B patients showed safe, sustained expression of blood clotting Factor IX from a single treatment.
“It is exciting to be building a company on this ground-breaking technology that has the potential to transform the lives of patients with a single administration,” said chairman Chris Hollowood, also a Partner with Syncona LLP.
By Selina McKee
Source: Pharma Times
Antibiotic resistance remains one of the biggest public health challenges. New drugs are still needed to tackle tough-to-treat bacteria. But finding new therapeutics to kill off pathogenic bacteria has been difficult.
Viral vectors are engineered viruses used to deliver gene therapies, gene-modified cell therapies and certain vaccines. And their shortage is already upon us, thanks to manufacturing approaches that simply haven’t kept pace with the advance of cell and gene therapies.
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