Shire partners Sangamo to develop hemophilia treatments

Shire has signed a collaboration and license agreement with Sangamo Bioscience to develop therapeutics for hemophilia and other monogenic diseases using Sangamo’s zinc finger DNA-binding protein (ZFP) technology.

Under the collaboration agreement, Shire will receive exclusive world-wide rights to ZFP Therapeutics designed to target four genes which will be used to investigate curative therapies for hemophilia A and B. Additionally, Shire also receives the right to designate three additional gene targets, and is responsible for clinical development and commercialisation of products arising from the alliance.

Sangamo is responsible for submission of Investigational New Drug (IND) Applications and European Clinical Trial Applications (CTA) for each product. In the deal, Shire will pay Sangamo $13 million upfront followed by research, regulatory, development and commercial milestone payments, and royalties on product sales.

Sangamo president and CEO Edward Lanphier said their ZFP platform is used as a transformative technology for the development of novel therapeutics, which have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of a wide range of genetic diseases.