Kriya Therapeutics buys scientific advisor’s NASH gene therapy company

Shankar Ramaswamy’s Kriya Therapeutics has acquired another gene therapy startup for an undisclosed amount.

Fatima Bosch

Kriya has purchased Tramontane Therapeutics, a chronic liver disease gene therapy startup out of Barcelona. Tramontane was spun out of the lab of one of Kriya’s scientific advisors, Fatima Bosch, in 2021. Kriya has been working with Bosch since 2020, when it licensed a diabetes gene therapy program from Bosch’s lab.

Ramaswamy declined to disclose the financial details of the acquisition in an email to Endpoints News.

Tramontane’s lead program is an adeno associated virus or AAV-based gene therapy that expresses FGF21 — a protein that is important for regulating metabolism. Currently, a number of biotech companies are testing FGF21 analogs in mid and late-stage programs for NASH or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Global liver disease organizations recently voted to change the name of the disease to MASH — metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis — to move away from the “nonalcoholic” language.

“Given the clinical validation that has been generated over the past year with multiple weekly/biweekly subcutaneously injected modified FGF21 analogs, we view this as a biologically de-risked target that would benefit from durable expression following one-time administration of a gene therapy,” Ramaswamy said in the email.

“The durable action of FGF21 that we can achieve through gene therapy mediated expression has the potential to deliver multiyear efficacy. This is important given that NASH is a chronic and lifelong disease,” he added later on.

Kriya has yet to put a gene therapy candidate in the clinic. In July, when Kriya raised an additional $150 million-plus, Ramaswamy said he hopes the biotech can test its first candidate in humans in one-and-a-half to two years. Kriya’s gene therapy aspirations include programs in ophthalmology, neurology and metabolic diseases. Last November, Kriya purchased a neurology gene therapy startup for an undisclosed amount.

For the FGF21 program, Ramaswamy said Kriya plans to enter the clinic by the first half of 2025.

NASH could get its first approved treatment as early as next year. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals in July said it completed its submission to the FDA looking for a potential accelerated approval of resmetirom following a positive readout on key Phase III endpoints last December.

Ramaswamy also declined to comment on his brother Vivek Ramaswamy’s ongoing presidential campaign. Vivek Ramaswamy, who co-founded Roivant Sciences, has alleged the FDA is “corrupt” and that he would “gut” it. (Roivant’s current CEO, Matt Gline, disagrees.)

therapeutics
gene therapy
pharmaceuticals
biotech
fda