Novartis has announced its agreement to buy UK-based ocular gene therapy company Gyroscope Therapeutics in a deal that could be worth up to $1.5 billion as the Swiss drugmaker looks to bolster its gene therapy roster.
Novartis will pay $800 million upfront and up to $700 million in additional milestone payments in the deal which will add Gyroscope's treatment, GT005, to Novartis' portfolio. GT005 is an investigational, one-time gene therapy currently in phase 2 for the treatment of people living with geographic atrophy, a disease of the retina for which there is currently no treatment. The condition is an advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration, which also causes loss of vision
In 2017, the FDA approved Novartis' Luxturna, a one-time novel gene therapy to treat patients with a rare form of inherited vision loss. Two years later, the agency approved Novartis' Zolgensma, a one-time treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, currently the most expensive drug in the world.
Novartis hopes to apply its "well-established expertise in ocular gene therapies" to continue to develop Gyroscope's promising one-time treatment.