BioPharma Dive September 21, 2021
Dive Brief:
- Novartis has bought a second biotech startup developing gene therapies for the eye, announcing Tuesday the acquisition of Arctos Medical, a small Swiss company spun out of the University of Bern.
- Arctos, which previously received financial backing from Novartis’ venture fund, specializes in optogenetics, a field of research which uses light to probe the behavior of neurons. Drawing on this science, Arctos is attempting to transform other types of retinal cells into photoreceptor-like cells by delivering a gene that encodes for a light-sensitive protein.
- Arctos, and now Novartis, envision this technology could be used to treat many different inherited retinal diseases in which photoreceptors have died. In theory, the technology is flexible as well, since...
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