Astel­las grabs a biotech tod­dler in $109M buy­out deal for a glau­co­ma gene ther­a­py pro­gram

Astel­las has snapped up a 3-year-old biotech start­up which has been de­vel­op­ing a gene ther­a­py for glau­co­ma. 

Launched in 2015, Quethera has been work­ing on an AAV gene ther­a­py pro­gram de­signed to pen­e­trate reti­nal cells and de­liv­er their car­go. In this case the team has been us­ing an­i­mal mod­els to show that their ap­proach — tar­get­ing the neu­rotrophin Brain De­rived Neu­rotroph­ic Fac­tor sig­nal­ing path­way — can pro­tect reti­nal gan­glion cells threat­ened by glau­co­ma.

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