Gene therapy biotech Kriya Therapeutics is continuing its acquisition streak to build out a pipeline, this time with a focus on the brain.
The North Carolina-based biotech is buying Redpin Therapeutics to expand, acquiring treatments for epilepsy and trigeminal neuralgia. There were no dollar figures included in Wednesday’s deal announcement and a press contact for Kriya said financial details weren’t being disclosed.
Redpin uses chemogenetics—the engineering of protein receptors to interact with small molecules—to selectively turn on or off disease-causing neurons. In other words, it’s a process that flips conventional drug development upside down. Instead of designing the small molecule that interacts with existing receptors, the company is designing the receptors to interact with an existing small molecule.
The ion channel receptors that Redpin has designed only respond in the presence of FDA-approved smoking cessation med varenicline. The company has said that it’s built around varenicline because it’s useful at small doses and has suitable brain penetration. News about the company’s progress has been sparse since a $15.5 million series A, backed in part by Takeda, closed in March 2020.
For Kriya, this is the latest in a string of smaller business deals meant to build out the company’s gene therapy business. Earlier this year, Kriya acquired Warden Bio, an AAV-focused gene therapy developer working on treatments for glycogen storage disorders. That acquisition was intended to be the foundation of Kriya’s rare disease unit. A couple of months later, Kriya inked an agreement with Twist Bioscience for antibodies that will be incorporated into Kriya’s AAV platform for treating cancer. The latest move with Redpin is intended to be Kriya’s informal arrival to the neurology scene.
Kriya’s pipeline-building strategy has been paired with an even more deliberate focus on manufacturing. Kriya invested early in establishing its own facility, which is now operational, thanks in part to $370 million in financing that’s been raised over the last year and a half.
“Our goal at the company is to put together the right pieces—both technical and operational—to actually elevate gene therapy to address a much broader universe of diseases,” Kriya CEO Shankar Ramaswamy, M.D., said at Fierce Biotech’s Cell & Gene Therapy Forum earlier this month. “And if you operate through that lens, manufacturing is really fundamental to doing anything in gene therapy.”
Still, Ramaswamy was clear the company’s overarching goal is not to be a contract manufacturing organization but to actually produce meaningful medicines. Kriya has yet to unveil its full pipeline, but Ramaswamy’s hope is that by next year, Kriya is either in the clinic with some of its first programs or quickly approaching it.