July 2, 2020 -- Hansa Biopharma has entered into an agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics for an exclusive worldwide license to develop and promote imlifidase as a pretreatment for gene therapy treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.
The pretreatment is an enzyme-based antibody enhancement therapy and is intended for patients with preexisting neutralizing antibodies to adeno-associated virus (AAV), the basis of Sarepta's gene therapy products. Sarepta will be responsible for conducting preclinical and clinical studies with imlifidase and also for any subsequent regulatory approvals. Sarepta will promote imlifidase as a pretreatment following successful approval.
Under the agreement, Hansa will receive a $10 million upfront payment and is eligible for development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments. Hansa will also receive royalties on Sarepta's incremental gene therapy sales when imlifidase gene therapy is enabled by pretreatment.