Adverum Biotechnologies Grants License to Ray Therapeutics Inc. for the AAV.7m8 Intravitreal Capsid

Adverum has granted Ray Therapeutics a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing license for the use of Adverum’s proprietary intravitreal AAV.7m8 vector capsid together with RayTx’s RTx-015 asset

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADVM), a clinical-stage company that aims to establish gene therapy as a new standard of care for highly prevalent ocular diseases, announces an agreement granting Ray Therapeutics a non-exclusive, royalty bearing license of Adverum’s proprietary AAV.7m8 intravitreal (IVT) vector capsid to be used in conjunction with Ray’s optogenetics payload.

“This deal highlights the value of Adverum’s AAV.7m8 gene therapy platform, a capsid for IVT delivery, in a variety of ocular gene therapy indications,” commented Laurent Fischer, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Adverum Biotechnologies. “A single IVT injection of Ixo-vec in the Phase 1 OPTIC study for wet age-related macular degeneration has been well tolerated and has led to stable and persistent aflibercept protein levels through at least three years. Ixo-vec is currently being evaluated in the ongoing Phase 2 LUNA trial. This marks the sixth asset delivered via AAV.7m8, including our Ixo-vec candidate for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, Gensight’s GS030, an optogenetic asset for retinitis pigmentosa, both of which have shown promising results in early clinical trials, as well as Adverum’s own investigational pre-clinical pipeline assets in dry AMD, optogenetics and blue cone monochromacy.”

“Visual optogenetics is a disruptive technology which affords the opportunity to restore life-transforming levels of vision to blind and visually impaired patients with conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa,” said Paul Bresge, chief executive officer of Ray Therapeutics. “We have developed a next generation bioengineered optogenetic payload which we believe is optimized for human vision. When delivered using previously studied low doses of AAV.7m8, we anticipate levels of target retinal ganglion cell transduction that could realize the full potential of our RTx-015 asset.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Adverum grants Ray Therapeutics a worldwide, non-exclusive license of AAV.7m8 for the prevention, treatment, diagnosis or amelioration of any ocular disorder utilizing Ray’s optogenetics approach.

About Adverum Biotechnologies
Adverum Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: ADVM) is a clinical-stage company that aims to establish gene therapy as a new standard of care for highly prevalent ocular diseases with the aspiration of developing functional cures to restore vision and prevent blindness. Leveraging the capabilities of its proprietary, intravitreal (IVT) platform, Adverum is developing durable, single-administration therapies, designed to be delivered in physicians’ offices, to eliminate the need for frequent ocular injections to treat these diseases. Adverum is evaluating its novel gene therapy candidate, ixoberogene soroparvovec (Ixo-vec, formerly referred to as ADVM-022), as a one-time, IVT injection for patients with neovascular or wet age-related macular degeneration. Additionally, by overcoming the challenges associated with current treatment paradigms for debilitating ocular diseases, Adverum aspires to transform the standard of care, preserve vision, and create a profound societal impact around the globe. For more information, please visit www.adverum.com.