City Therapeutics and Bausch + Lomb collaborate on GA treatment candidate
City Therapeutics will develop a novel RNAi clinical candidate toward a specific disease target for intravitreal administration.
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City Therapeutics, Inc. set to collaborate with Bausch + Lomb on the development of a novel therapy for the treatment of retinal diseases including geographic atrophy (GA).
The arrangement of this agreement states that City Therapeutics will develop a novel RNAi clinical candidate toward a specific disease target for intravitreal administration. If Bausch + Lomb elects to pursue the candidate for further development, it will be responsible for IND-enabling studies and clinical development, as well as regulatory submissions and commercialization activities. City Therapeutics will retain all technology and product rights, except where Bausch + Lomb exercises its right to exclusively license a candidate for ocular indications.1
Andy Orth, CEO of City Therapeutics is quoted in the press release1 on this news, saying, “We are excited to collaborate with Bausch + Lomb’s team of eye health experts, who share our vision to expand the reach of RNAi-based medicines for people living with serious unmet medical needs such as GA. We look forward to delivering a new treatment option for the more than one million people in the U.S. living with GA. For City Therapeutics, this marks our first major corporate collaboration, and it enables significant funding to advance our platform of innovative RNAi trigger molecules for broader applications in ophthalmologic diseases.”
Brent Saunders, chairman and CEO of Bausch + Lomb also shared how this collaboration could further treatment options, saying, “City Therapeutics’ leadership is behind some of the biggest innovations in RNAi medicines to date, and they have the right experience to help us successfully disrupt the GA treatment landscape. Today’s approved treatments for GA leave enormous room for improvement. Our plan is to develop a novel RNAi-based medicine through this collaboration that will deliver new hope and better outcomes for this large patient population.”1
The press release1 also noted the financial aspects of this collaborative agreement. City Therapeutics has received an upfront cash payment and, if Bausch + Lomb elects to pursue a candidate for further development, City Therapeutics is also eligible to receive contingent payments tied to development, regulatory, commercial and sales milestones of up to $485 million, as well as tiered royalty payments on net product sales. In connection with the collaboration, City Therapeutics also issued a convertible note to Bausch + Lomb, representing a minority equity interest in the company if converted.
