2seventy slims down with sale of hemophilia assets to Novo
Dive Brief:
- 2seventy Bio is shrinking further, announcing Thursday the sale of a hemophilia A research program, along with associated technology rights, to partner Novo Nordisk.
- 2seventy and Novo first teamed up in 2019 to develop a gene editing therapy for the bleeding condition. Under Thursday’s deal, Novo will pay $38 million in cash to acquire the therapy, which is in preclinical testing. 2seventy staff who have been working on the program will join Novo.
- “Novo Nordisk has been a valued partner over the past five years, and we are confident that under their leadership, the promise of developing a new treatment approach for patients living with hemophilia A will continue to progress,” said 2seventy CEO Chip Baird in a statement.
Dive Insight:
2seventy is the product of Bluebird Bio splitting in half nearly three years ago. The road since then has been difficult for 2seventy, which inherited Bluebird’s cancer drug pipeline. A weak financing market for biotechnology companies made raising fresh funding difficult, while the initial launch of Abecma, a cell therapy for multiple myeloma developed with Bristol Myers Squibb, was hamstrung by tight supply.
Last September, longtime Bluebird CEO Nick Leschly stepped down as head of 2seventy, part of a restructuring that claimed about 180 jobs. Five months later, 2seventy sold off much of its pipeline to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for cheap in a deal that sent 150 2seventy employees to the larger company.
Thursday’s deal tightens 2seventy’s focus even more narrowly on Abecma, which recently won an expanded approval for earlier multiple myeloma use in the U.S.
In addition to the hemophilia A program, Novo is also acquiring rights to 2seventy’s in vivo gene editing technology outside of its use in cancer and gene editing for autoimmune disease cell therapies.
The hemophilia program in question is built around a gene editing technology known as megaTALs that the companies envisioned using to insert a functional gene into the genome of liver cells. The target gene, known as Factor VIII, is mutated in people with hemophilia A.
While Novo is best known for its diabetes and obesity medicines, the company is active in hemophilia research and recently disclosed updated results for a preventive therapy it’s developing.
“We are devoted to developing therapies with a curative outlook, including our continued development of a next-generation in vivo genome editing program aiming to offer individuals living with Hemophilia A a lifetime free of factor replacement therapy,” said Karina Thorn, Novo’s head of global nucleic acid therapies research, in a statement.
Shares in 2seventy rose by nearly 5% in Thursday morning trading.