Ginkgo snaps up gene therapy vector assets from StrideBio

Ginkgo Bioworks is picking up some viral vectors, part of what it calls an ongoing push into gene therapy services.

On Wednesday, Ginkgo announced that it will acquire StrideBio’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid assets, which are in the discovery or preclinical stage and centered around cardiovascular diseases, according to StrideBio’s website. Ginkgo said in the release that these assets are available to license out or partner on.

The acquisition, according to Ginkgo, is centered on the asset and engineering end, and one employee from StrideBio will be coming over to work in Ginkgo’s mammalian engineering division.

Anna Marie Wagner

Anna Marie Wagner, Ginkgo’s SVP of corporate development told Endpoints News in an email that Stride had gotten “significant inbound interest” for licensing its capsids before the transaction. She declined to disclose the financial details of the transaction.

“These assets will become an important component as we develop our end-to-end gene therapy platform, which can support customers needing to solve challenges in tissue targeting, immunogenicity, manufacturability, and more,” Wagner said.

StrideBio secured several partnerships for its capsids in 2019, both with Takeda in a $30 million upfront deal and Sarepta for $48 million upfront. However, it was not immediately clear if these deals would continue.

Endpoints reached out to StrideBio but didn’t immediately receive a response.

Ginkgo has been busy this week as it sold a lab, acquired through last year’s $300 million acquisition of Zymergen, to chemical and materials company Solvay on Tuesday. Ginkgo also partnered with the European biotech Sensible Biotechnologies to build out a more robust mRNA manufacturing platform.

manufacturing
gene therapy
biotech