Af­ter track­ing suc­cess in an­i­mals, neu­ro­sciences star De­nali moves ear­ly to bag an op­tion on a promis­ing tech for cross­ing the blood-brain bar­ri­er

Flush with cash and burst­ing at the seams from rapid growth as it looks to break the long, ug­ly los­ing streak for Alzheimer’s R&D and oth­er tough dis­eases, the ex­ec­u­tive crew at De­nali $DNLI has struck an ear­ly deal to pick up their op­tion on the an­ti­body tech they’ve been us­ing to smug­gle drugs through the blood-brain bar­ri­er.

The South San Fran­cis­co-based biotech has com­plet­ed a deal to buy F-Star Gam­ma, a group set up by F-Star’s Fc en­gi­neers de­vel­op­ing Fcabs to tar­get trans­porters in the BBB, a hur­dle na­ture set up to pro­tect the brain and a long-stand­ing ob­sta­cle to drug de­vel­op­ers. De­nali is hand­ing over $24 mil­lion to nail the op­tion close to two years af­ter they struck their pact. And there’s some added cash in that fig­ure to ex­pand their work to cov­er two new, undis­closed trans­porter tar­gets.

Endpoints News

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.