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Mergers and Acquisitions

Date: 2021-09-21

Type of information: Company acquisition

Acquired company: Comet Therapeutics (USA-MA)

Acquiring company: VectivBio (Switzerland)

Amount: -

Terms:

  • On September 21, 2021, VectivBio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering novel transformational treatments for severe rare conditions, announced the closing of its previously announced acquisition of Comet Therapeutics, a privately held company that has been developing drugs to address previously untreatable Inherited Metabolic Diseases (IMDs). The acquisition of the CoMET platform significantly enhances and expands VectivBio’s pipeline with the immediate addition of 4 programs targeting organic acidemias, urea cycle disorders, fatty acid oxidation disorders, and amino acidopathies. These four programs are currently in research, with plans to enter the clinic with the first program in the next 18 months
  • The first candidate from the CoMET platform, VB-1197, is initially being evaluated in methylmalonic acidemia (MMA) and propionic acidemia (PA), two organic acidemias that have a mortality rate of up to 40% in patients by 18 years old and result in severe neurological disability in adult survivors. The Phase 1 trial is expected to commence within the next 18 months.

Details: The CoMET small molecule platform aims to treat a large group of life-threatening IMDs, which are severe genetic disorders caused by congenital defects of metabolism fundamental to energy generation and the survival of cells. While each IMD is individually rare, collectively, they occur in 1 in 800 births, affect over 75,000 people in the United States and Europe, and are one of the leading causes of death from non-acquired causes in children. The genetic defects causing IMDs disrupt energy production, promote the accumulation of toxic metabolites, and result in the dysregulation of Co-enzyme A (CoA), a core component of many metabolic pathways. The CoMET platform is designed to target these critical cellular dysfunctions by utilizing a stabilized CoA precursor backbone to supply functional CoA and carry tailored intermediary metabolite cargos to address specific underlying conditions. This modular technology can potentially treat multiple previously untreatable IMDs by systemically and intracellularly delivering medicines that restore cellular function.

Related: Rare diseases

Is general: Yes