Lineage buys Huntington's cell therapy for $4.7M upfront
What's the deal? Lineage Cell TherapeuticsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired NeuroAirmid Therapeutics and worldwide rights to HUNT1, a clinical-stage cell therapy for Huntington's disease. Lineage paid about $4.7 million upfront, with up to $53 million more tied to development and other milestones.
What's the endgame? HUNT1, a pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem cell therapy, becomes Lineage's third clinical-stage asset. It is being tested in the ongoing REGEN4HD study at the University of California, Irvine, which plans to enrol up to 21 patients.
Why now? The therapy was built on the same cell line Lineage already uses for its AlloSCOPE platform and COR1 program. The company plans to migrate HUNT1's manufacturing onto that platform while the study enrols.
Chief executive officer Brian M. Culley said HUNT1 "represents an entirely new approach to treating HD," focused on delivering protective factors to the brain rather than reducing mutant Huntingtin protein, the focus of most recent research.
How is it funded? HUNT1 reached the clinic with $16 million of translational funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. UCI also secured a CIRM clinical award of up to $12 million supporting REGEN4HD, which Culley said covers the majority of trial costs and let Lineage close the deal "without deviating meaningfully from our historic and disciplined levels of investment."
What could go wrong? HUNT1 remains early. Just six patients have been dosed, and no efficacy results were disclosed. Rival approaches are further along: uniQure's AMT-130 gene therapy has FDA priority review, while oral candidates from Novartis and Prilenia are in late-stage trials.
The signal: The low upfront price marks a disciplined pipeline bet on a distinct cell-therapy approach to a disease with no approved disease-modifying treatments. It is not yet evidence that cell therapy can match more advanced rivals in the clinic.
Read more: businesswire.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
