Applied Genetic Technologies gets $2M for gene therapy

June 26, 2007 | David P. Hamilton | Comments |

Applied Genetic Technologies, an Alachua, Fla., gene-therapy developer, received a $2 million milestone payment from Genzyme.

The two companies are jointly developing a gene therapy for treating a form of blindness called age-related macular degeneration. The treatment uses an adeno-associated virus designed to deliver a gene to eye cells that, when activated, will disrupt a protein called VEGF that stimulates the growth of leaky blood vessels that contribute directly to blindness.

The milestone payment covered the successful transfer of AGT’s adeno-associated virus production technology to Genzyme. The gene-therapy treatment doesn’t appear to be ready for clinical trials yet.

Next Story: Shifd allows seamless shift between PC and cellphone
Previous Story: Boston Scientific acquires medical-wireless startup Remon Medical

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,

Photo of David P. Hamilton

About the Author, David P. Hamilton

David Hamilton has been writing for VentureBeat LifeScience since April 2007. He formerly spent 14 years as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its San Francisco and Tokyo bureaus. Prior to that, he spent several years as a reporter at Science Magazine and as a reporter/researcher for the New Republic, both in Washington.

  • Great work being done and Genzyme was smart to pick it up.

    PS: How I deplore websites that resize my browser window. Yes, agtc... I'm talking to you!
  • David Hamilton
    It is interesting, although of course the up-and-down history of gene therapy suggests that this sort of technology has to be viewed with a lot of caution.

    I totally agree about the AGTC Web site -- it's obnoxious.

    Genzyme appears to be increasingly interested in gene therapy. I missed an item from Friday in which they invested a fairly large sum in Ceregene, the Cell Genesys gene-therapy spinoff. I'll post a link here when I get the item up in a bit.

    UPDATE: The Ceregene-Genzyme item is up here.