Thousand Oaks-based gene remedy firm Capsida Therapeutics Inc. has signed a multi-year partnership take care of a subsidiary of pharma big Eli Lilly and Co. to develop genetic medicines for severe ailments.
Separately, Capsida additionally introduced this month longtime pharma trade monetary govt Julie Hakim as its new chief monetary officer. She succeeds Pamela Wapnick, who left in June and is now chief monetary officer for Irvine-based medical machine firm Diality Inc.
Capsida Biotherapeutics was based in 2019 by California Institute of Technology neuroscience lab college students Nick Goeden and Nicholas Flytzanis. It’s a gene therapy-platform firm that by way of intravenous supply of a single engineered capsid can goal single or a number of organs concurrently, whereas limiting publicity to non-targeted organs.
The time period capsid refers back to the protein shell that surrounds a virus. An engineered capsid can be utilized to ship a drug to a really small goal in a diseased organ, limiting hurt to surrounding tissue and decreasing undesirable unintended effects. Capsida makes use of an adeno-associated virus platform to engineer the capsid. (Adenoviruses are the principal explanation for the widespread chilly.)
Capsida’s drug pipeline consists of therapies for a number of neurologic ailments. These can embody Alzheimer’s illness, cerebral palsy, Bell’s palsy and a number of sclerosis. This focus may be traced to the lab work that Goeden and Flytzanis did at Caltech underneath the tutelage of Viviana Gradinaru, director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience on the Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech. Gradinaru was a co-founder of Capsida Biotherapeutics and has been a longtime board member.
Capsida’s partnership deal introduced on Jan. 4 is with Prevail Therapeutics, a completely owned subsidiary of Indianapolis-based pharma big Eli Lilly. Prevail’s focus can also be on growing gene therapies to deal with ailments of the central nervous system. But not like Capsida, Prevail has nearly limitless sources, since it may possibly faucet into its mother or father, Eli Lilly, which posted $28 billion in income in 2021.
Under phrases of the partnership, Capsida will obtain $55 million consisting of an upfront fee and a dedication (from Prevail) to take part within the firm (Capsida)’s subsequent financing spherical, plus the potential to obtain as much as $685 million in analysis and improvement and industrial milestones in addition to tiered royalties.
In addition, for one of many applications underneath the collaboration, Capsida could have an choice to take part in improvement and commercialization within the U.S. in change for a gross margin share in that program.
For all applications, Capsida will lead capsid discovery efforts utilizing its adeno-associated virus engineering and screening platform and Prevail will probably be answerable for preclinical and investigational new drug-enabling research with therapeutic payloads.
“We are thrilled to be entering into this strategic collaboration with Prevail,” Peter Anastasiou, Capsida’s chief govt, mentioned within the announcement. “Prevail’s expertise in neuroscience, gene therapy R&D, and access to Lilly’s world-class commercialization capabilities complements Capsida’s fully integrated approach, including our next-generation AAV engineering platform.”
For its half, Prevail additionally addressed the complementary nature of the 2 firms.
“Their expertise and capabilities complement our innovative approaches, and together we aspire to unlock the full potential of gene therapy technologies to help patients who are most in need of treatments,” Mansuo Shannon, Prevail’s chief scientific officer, mentioned within the announcement.
Pharma finance veteran
As Capsida’s new CFO, Hakim brings greater than 25 years of expertise in monetary govt roles at pharmaceutical firms.
Prior to becoming a member of Capsida, Hakim was chief monetary officer at St. Louis-based Sequoia Vaccines Inc., which makes vaccines to deal with varied bacterial infections. Before that, she was a monetary govt at Copenhagen, Denmark-based biopharma firm Lundbeck, which focuses on therapies for mind ailments.
“In her very successful career as a financial executive, Julie has demonstrated expertise in many areas of finance and business – including R&D, product launches, revenue growth, acquisitions, integrations, and workforce expansions,” Anastasiou, Capsida’s chief govt, mentioned within the firm’s Jan. 18 announcement.
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