Replay Launches Eudora, Its First HSV Gene Therapy Company Focused on Retinal Eye Disease

Replay, a company reprogramming biology by writing and delivering DNA, announced the launch of Eudora, an HSV gene therapy company targeting genetic retinal diseases.

Photo: Adrian Woolfson, executive chairman, president and co-founder of Replay

It is the first of Replay’s product companies to leverage its high payload capacity herpes simplex virus (HSV) delivery vector, synHSV. Eudora’s co-founders, Joe Glorioso, Mark Blumenkranz, David Schaffer, and Vinit Mahajan, are seasoned entrepreneurs, and global leaders in the fields of HSV and retinal disease gene therapy.

Replay’s corporate structure separates technology development from therapeutic product development within disease area-specific product companies. Eudora is the first of Replay’s four synHSV gene therapy product companies, with the other three applying big DNA gene therapy to monogenic diseases of the brain, skin, and muscle.

“Eudora provides Replay with the first opportunity to showcase the differentiated payload capacity of its synHSV technology, which we believe has transformative potential within the field of eye gene therapy and beyond,” said Adrian Woolfson, executive chairman, president and co-founder of Replay.

Eudora’s pipeline includes retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, and Usher syndrome type 1B. Replay’s synHSV technology is a high payload capacity gene-deleted HSV-1 vector capable of delivering up to eight times the payload of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. This facilitates the delivery of genes that are too big to fit into AAV and enables polygenic gene therapy. Replay is also developing an HSV vector that can deliver up to 30 times the AAV payload.

“The incorporation of Eudora presents a unique opportunity to leverage Replay’s next-generation HSV-1 delivery platform, developed by my team at the University of Pittsburgh over several decades and licensed to Replay,” said Joe Glorioso, co-founder of Eudora. “I believe that our next-generation HSV delivery platform has several distinct advantages, and the potential to be disruptive to existing viral delivery platforms. It will enable the delivery of large genes, as well as genomic genes that cannot readily be accommodated by AAV vectors.”

Author: Rare Daily Staff