uniQure Announces FDA Clearance of Investigational New Drug Application for AMT-260 Gene Therapy for Refractory Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
September 05 2023 - 6:05AM
uniQure Announces FDA Clearance of Investigational New Drug
Application for AMT-260 Gene Therapy for Refractory Mesial
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ: QURE), a leading gene therapy company
advancing transformative therapies for patients with severe medical
needs, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has cleared the Investigational New Drug (IND) application
for AMT-260, the Company’s gene therapy candidate for refractory
mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). AMT-260 comprises an AAV9
vector that locally delivers two engineered miRNAs designed to
degrade the GRIK2 gene and suppress the aberrant expression of
glutamate receptor subtype GLUK2 that is believed to trigger
seizures in patients with refractory MTLE.
“The clearance of the IND for AMT-260 is an
important achievement in advancing our pipeline and is our next
program to enter clinical development in an area of high unmet
medical need,” stated Walid Abi-Saab, chief medical officer of
uniQure. “There are few treatment options for patients who have
refectory MTLE, and we are pleased to soon begin the clinical
investigation of this one-time administered gene therapy approach
as a potential new treatment.”
The first-in-human Phase I/IIa clinical trial
will be conducted in the United States and consist of two parts.
The first part is a multicenter, open-label trial with two dosing
cohorts of six patients each to assess safety, tolerability, and
first signs for efficacy of AMT-260 in patients with refractory
MTLE. The second part is expected to be a randomized, controlled
trial to generate proof of concept (POC) data. The clinical trial
is expected to begin patient screening in the fourth quarter of
2023.
About AMT-260AMT-260 is an AAV9
gene therapy product that locally delivers miRNA silencing
technology to target the GRIK2 gene and suppress aberrantly
expressed GluK2 containing kainate receptors. The therapeutic goal
is to lower the expression of GluK2 containing kainate receptors
which are believed to trigger epilepsy when aberrantly expressed in
the epileptic hippocampus. AMT-260 represents a novel potential
one-time administered approach to treating refractory MTLE.
About Refractory Mesial Temporal Lobe
EpilepsyTemporal lobe epilepsy is a chronic neurologic
disorder and is the most common form of focal epilepsy with more
than 600,000 individuals suffering from the disorder in the United
States. Approximately 80% of all temporal lobe epilepsy cases are
mesial, which involves the medial or internal structures. The
majority of MTLE cases are refractory to anti-seizure medications
which severely limits treatment options.
About uniQure
uniQure’s mission is to reimagine the future of
medicine by delivering innovative cures that transform lives. The
recent approvals of our gene therapy for hemophilia B – a historic
achievement based on more than a decade of research and clinical
development – represents a major milestone in the field of genomic
medicine and ushers in a new treatment approach for patients living
with hemophilia. We are now leveraging our modular and validated
technology and manufacturing platform to advance a pipeline of
proprietary gene therapies for the treatment of patients with
Huntington's disease, refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Fabry disease, and other
severe diseases. www.uniQure.com
uniQure Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release contains forward-looking
statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact
are forward-looking statements, which are often indicated by terms
such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," “establish,” "estimate,"
"expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward to", "may," "plan,"
"potential," "predict," "project," “seek,” "should," "will,"
"would" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are
based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information
available to management only as of the date of this press release.
These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements regarding the timing of patient enrollment in the
Company’s open-label U.S. Phase I/IIa trial for refractory MTLE and
the scope of treatment options for patients who have refractory
MTLE. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from
those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many
reasons, including, without limitation, risks associated with the
impact of financial and geopolitical events on our Company and the
wider economy and health care system, our clinical development
activities, clinical results, collaboration arrangements,
regulatory oversight, product commercialization and intellectual
property claims, as well as the risks, uncertainties and other
factors described under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company’s
periodic securities filings, including its Annual Report on Form
10-K filed February 27, 2023 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q
filed August 1, 2023. Given these risks, uncertainties and other
factors, you should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, and the Company assumes no obligation
to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information
becomes available in the future.
uniQure Contacts:
FOR
INVESTORS: |
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FOR
MEDIA: |
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Maria E. Cantor |
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Chiara Russo |
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Tom Malone |
Direct: 339-970-7536 |
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Direct: 617-306-9137 |
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Direct: 339-970-7558 |
Mobile: 617-680-9452 |
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Mobile: 617-306-9137 |
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Mobile:339-223-8541 |
m.cantor@uniQure.com |
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c.russo@uniQure.com |
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t.malone@uniQure.com |
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