RARE Daily

Gene Therapy Biotech Adverum Raises $150 Million in Public Offering

February 18, 2020

Rare Daily Staff

Adverum Biotechnologies said it raised $150.2 million in a public offering of 10.9 million shares of its common stock at $13.75 per share.

Adverum is a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on ocular and rare diseases. The company proposed the public offering after reporting positive interim data from a phase 1 dose-ranging clinical trial of ADVM-022 intravitreal injection gene therapy in treatment-experienced patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Age-related macular degeneration is characterized by progressive destruction of the macula, located in the retina, which leads to the loss of central vision. Symptoms usually appear in a person’s sixties or seventies and worsen over time. There are two forms of AMD, dry and wet, with the dry form accounting for up to 90 percent of cases. Wet AMD is rare and is the severest form of the disease.

Current treatment options include monthly injections to slow the progression of the disease. Adverum hopes that a one-time gene therapy could offer patients a better alternative.     

Adverum’s pipeline includes the development of ADVM-022 for diabetic retinopathy, with plans to submit an investigational new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2020. The company is also developing a gene therapy for hereditary angioedema, which is characterized by episodes of swelling in various parts of the body.

Adverum is collaborating with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to research, develop, and commercialize gene therapies for the rare condition juvenile x-linked retinoschisis, which affects males only, and up to three additional undisclosed targets for ophthalmic diseases.

 

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