Amicus Shells Out $100M For Celenex And Dives Into Gene Therapy
Summary
This morning, Cranbury, NJ-based Amicus (NASDAQ: FOLD ) agreed to pay $100 million up front to buy a privately held company, Celenex, spun out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.The acquisition gives Amicus a portfolio of 10 experimental gene therapies—treatments that may offer a long-lasting, if not permanent, effect through a single infusion—originally discovered at Nationwide and The Ohio State University.LSDs are caused by mutations in the genetic instructions for important enzymes that normally help our cells clear out waste like extra fats and sugar.The most advanced Celenex gene therapies are in early-stage clinical trials aiming to treat two genetic subsets of patients with Batten disease, a rare and fatal inherited disorder.The move makes Amicus the latest to place a bet on gene therapy, a field of research that has finally come of age after years of ups and downs .