Aevitas announces asset purchase agreement with 4D Molecular

Aevitas Therapeutics, a Fortress Biotech (FBIO) subsidiary company, and 4D Molecular Therapeutics (FDMT), announced the execution of an asset purchase agreement for 4DMT to acquire Aevitas’ proprietary rights to its short-form human complement factor H asset for the treatment of complement-mediated diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, 4DMT will make cash payments to Aevitas totaling up to ~$140 million in potential late-stage development, regulatory and sales milestones. A range of single-digit royalties on net sales are also payable. The aforementioned payments are payable solely to Aevitas, and 4DMT will be responsible for license payment obligations to University of Pennsylvania, where the sCFH technology was co-invented and co-developed by Dr. Wenchao Song, a Professor of Pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine. Aevitas’ transgene encoding sCFH, a shortened and optimized form of a natural inhibitor of the inflammatory complement pathway, will be combined with 4DMT’s proprietary retinotropic R100 vector to form product candidate 4D-175 for treatment of GA secondary to age-related macular degeneration.