As­tria nabs pre­clin­i­cal OX40 atopic der­mati­tis drug for $15M up­front, prices $64M of­fer­ing

As­tria Ther­a­peu­tics re­vealed it had li­censed Ich­nos Sci­ences’ lead can­di­date for atopic der­mati­tis for an up­front fee of $15 mil­lion be­fore an­nounc­ing Thurs­day morn­ing the pric­ing of an un­der­writ­ten of­fer­ing of its com­mon stock to raise ap­prox­i­mate­ly $64 mil­lion.

As­tria will de­vel­op the pre­clin­i­cal can­di­date, dubbed STAR-0310, in atopic der­mati­tis and po­ten­tial­ly oth­er in­di­ca­tions. STAR-0310 is a mon­o­clon­al an­ti­body that in­hibits OX40 and min­i­mizes T cell de­ple­tion — which As­tria said is a “clin­i­cal­ly val­i­dat­ed” mech­a­nism of ac­tion for atopic der­mati­tis treat­ment with the po­ten­tial to on­ly have to be dosed once every two to three months.

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