Selecta Biosciences to focus on gout treatment

Selecta Biosciences announced Thursday that it will stop investment in most of its pipeline assets except for a treatment for chronic refractory gout licensed to Swedish pharma Sobi and a gene therapy it’s developing with Astellas.

The company plans to submit a BLA for SEL-212 in the first half of next year.

“While we firmly believe that the balance of our pipeline beyond SEL-212 has the potential to generate meaningful returns for stockholders, we recognize that significant capital and time will be required to advance these assets to value creating inflection points on our own. And as such, we have taken the decision to suspend further investments in all programs beyond SEL-212,” Selecta CEO Carsten Brunn said on an investor call.

Blaine Davis

Selecta CFO Blaine Davis told investors that the pipeline should give the biotech enough cash to last into 2027.

Earlier this year, the company cut 25% of its workforce and paused several clinical programs in a bid to extend its cash runway ahead of the filing for SEL-212. Back in 2020, Sobi secured the rights to the drug for $100 million and up to $615 million in royalties and milestone payments. The BLA filing would trigger a milestone payment, according to Mizuho Securities.

Brunn said Thursday in a release that the company plans to “pursue partnership opportunities to advance the balance of our portfolio and maximize their value.” Selecta’s pipeline includes gene therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and its ImmTOR-IL platform, which was set to start IND-enabling studies later this year.

Brunn also said some of its other projects have ended. Takeda earlier this year ended all preclinical AAV gene therapy work earlier and terminated its deal with Selecta, while Sarepta decided “not to move forward” with a partnership.

However, Selecta will continue to work on SEL-018 with Astellas, a gene therapy intended to treat late-onset Pompe disease.

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