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Plans to tackle congestive heart failure
uniQure (Nasdaq:QURE), a leader in human gene therapy, has announced the acquisition of InoCard GmbH, an innovative, early-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of gene therapy approaches for cardiac disease. InoCard has developed a novel gene therapy to preclinical proof of concept, for the one-time treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF), a rapidly progressing disease affecting 26 million people worldwide.
InoCard founders Prof. Patrick Most and Prof. Hugo Katus will join uniQure as Managing Director of uniQure in Germany and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, for Cardiovascular Diseases, respectively.
InoCard’s lead program is a gene therapy to express the calcium-binding protein S100A1, which has been shown by Profs. Most and Katus to be a master regulator of myocardial function. The therapy was developed based on their fundamental discovery that S100A1 is downregulated in CHF and administration of S100A1 has demonstrated in vivo beneficial effects on contractile force, growth control of heart muscle cells and rhythm stability of the heart and is also able to adapt the heart’s energy supply to increased cardiac output. In a porcine heart failure model, treatment with InoCard’s gene therapy AAV-S100A1 demonstrated a 12-month survival rate of 90%.
“The acquisition of InoCard is a further demonstration of uniQure’s strategy to access the best early-stage programs in our industry and accelerate their development by the application of our proven modular platform,” commented Jörn Aldag, uniQure’s Chief Executive Officer. “There is strong scientific rationale that addressing calcium dysregulation leads to an astounding effect in congestive heart failure. We are very excited to have Patrick Most and Hugo Katus join us. Their groundbreaking research and expertise in heart failure is a great contribution to uniQure, and we believe that together we will deliver the best-in-class treatment for congestive heart failure.”
“Despite the continuously growing prevalence of CHF, there have been no therapeutic innovations in decades. InoCard has successfully laid the basis for the development of a long-term, causative treatment of this devastating disease,” said Prof. Patrick Most, founder of InoCard. “We believe that combining our promising S100A1 therapy with uniQure’s capabilities in innovating safe and effective gene therapies has the potential to transform the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.”
Under the terms of the agreement, InoCard shareholders will receive an upfront payment of €3 million (€1.5 in cash and €1.5m in uniQure stock), and certain success-based milestones and royalties.
