According to a recent article, Castle Creek Inc. has acquired Novavita Thera Inc. in an effort to expand its research and development efforts.
Castle Creek Inc.
Castle Creek Biosciences Inc. is a late-clinical stage cell and gene therapy company. They focus on developing and commercializing therapies for patients living with rare genetic diseases. These therapies are disease-modifying and even potentially curative.
Novavita Thera Inc.
Novavita Thera Inc. is a preclinical gene therapy company that is focused on rare liver and metabolic diseases.
What This Means
By gaining Novavita Thera Inc., Castle Creek Inc. is now able to expand its technology platform by adding in vivo capabilities to its already existing ex vivo approach. Furthermore, this allows Castle Creek to move beyond just looking at skin and connective tissue disorders to looking at rare liver diseases.
The dual technology platform that is now available to them will expedite the discovery of a multitude of therapies. This is a major advantage that not a lot of cell and gene therapy companies have.
A Starting Point
Castle Creek plans to use this new merge to first look into developing a gene therapy for hereditary tyrosinemia type 1 (HT1). As of right now, the only available curative treatment for this disease is a liver transplant. Castle Creek, therefore, hopes to continue the development of LV-FAH (a potential therapy that uses a vector that contains a copy of the FAH gene that is functioning and administers it right to a patient through their portal vein).
Tyrosinemia (TYR)
Tyrosinemia (TYR) is a serious, inherited metabolic disorder that inhibits the body’s ability to process or break down essential amino acids found in common foods. Tyrosine is a type of amino acid and is a core component of protein; without being able to process protein, and without treatment, toxic levels of tyrosine rapidly spread throughout the body, causing significant health challenges that can result in death. Presently, there are three basic kinds of hereditary tyrosinemia, characterized by certain symptoms.
To learn more about what Castle Creek Inc. is working on, visit https://castlecreekbio.com/
