Lilly, PTC snap up bankrupt Sangamo's main assets

Just a few weeks after filing for bankruptcy protection, Sangamo Therapeutics has found buyers for some of its key assets, including a Fabry disease therapy and its genomic medicine platforms.

PTC Therapeutics was the successful bidder for Fabry candidate isaralgagene civaparvovec (formerly ST-920), and will pay $111 million in cash for the gene therapy, with another $100 million in potential milestones. The bid trumps an earlier, undisclosed bid by Astellas, which was announced in June.

Sangamo has already started a rolling biologics license application (BLA) in the US for the therapy on the back of the STAAR trial, and will get a payment of $80 million if it gets accelerated approval from the FDA, with another $20 million on offer if that is subsequently upgraded to a full approval.

Lilly, meanwhile, has agreed to pay $50 million in cash for Sangamo's capsid delivery, zinc finger and modular integrase (MINT) technologies – which underpin its genomic medicine platform – as well as ST-506, an investigational epigenetic regulator designed to treat prion disease, which can lead to devastating neurodegeneration.

Other bidders are also buying select tools and equipment from Sangamo for $2.55 million, but the other assets – including ST-503 in phase 1/2 for chronic neuropathic pain, giroctocogene fitelparvovec for haemophilia A, and cell therapy and regulatory T-cell assets – remain up for grabs.

The deals are still subject to approval by the bankruptcy court, according to Sangamo, which has been facing dwindling financial resources in the last few years, exacerbated by the loss of Pfizer as a partner for the haemophilia A programme last year.

The company has been through a prolonged difficult period, punctuated with sweeping job losses and divested R&D programmes, as it reinvented itself as a neurology-focused genomic medicine specialist.

"Reaching the conclusion of this first competitive auction represents an important milestone in Sangamo's reorganisation," said Sandy Macrae, Sangamo's chief executive.

"We are pleased that our platform technologies, Fabry disease, and prion programmes attracted strong interest from parties who have the scale to continue their development for patients in need," he added.

"We remain focused on monetising our remaining assets and seeking court approvals to finalise all sales."

Assuming the bankruptcy court rubber-stamps the divestments, the proceeds will be distributed to creditors, and the company – first founded in the mid-1990s – will be wound down.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay