Spark Therapeutics buys Dublin gene-therapy company
Philadelphia drugmaker Spark Therapeutics Inc. has acquired for $15.1 million a private, Ireland-based gene-therapy company. Spark, spun out of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Monday that it bought Genable Technologies Ltd. for $6 million in cash and 265,000 shares of Spark stock, valued at $9.1 million based on Friday's closing price.
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Philadelphia drugmaker Spark Therapeutics Inc. has acquired for $15.1 million a private, Ireland-based gene-therapy company.
Spark, spun out of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Monday that it bought Genable Technologies Ltd. for $6 million in cash and 265,000 shares of Spark stock, valued at $9.1 million based on Friday's closing price.
Additional financial terms were not disclosed.
Spark said Genable's potential treatment, RhoNova, will target a common form of a rare inherited retinal disease, which impacts about 30,000 people worldwide.
There currently is no approved pharmacologic treatment for the condition. The experimental therapy has shown promising data in animals, and received orphan-drug, or rare-disease, designation in the United States and Europe. Spark has collaborated with Genable on developing the therapy since 2014, the company said.
"This transaction advances our strategy of leveraging Spark's best-in-class gene-therapy platform through a combination of internal innovation, acquisition, and collaboration," said Jeffrey D. Marrazzo, Spark's cofounder and CEO.
Genable will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Spark, and will remain in Dublin.
In a statement, Genable said that Spark has the "resources and expertise" to maximize the chance of success for RhoNova and "deliver its benefit for patients."
Spark's leading drug candidate, SPK-RPE65, if approved by the Federal Drug Administration, would be the first U.S. gene treatment that uses genes as medicine.
SPK-RPE65, and Spark, were spun out of decades of research led by Katherine A. High at Children's Hospital, the largest shareholder in the publicly traded company.
SPK-RPE65 streams genes directly into the retina of the eye. Spark, with offices at 3737 Market St., reported in October that patients in a Phase 3 clinical trial had some eyesight restored with SPK-RPE65.
Spark plans to file a new-drug application with the FDA later this year.
Shares of Spark rose 3.36 percent, or $1.16, to close at $35.69 in afternoon trading.
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