Pfizer acquires Bamboo Therapeutics

Abstract

Further bolstering its rare disease unit, Pfizer has paid $150 million to acquire gene therapy-focused Bamboo Therapeutics. The drugmaker, which earlier this year took a 22% stake in Bamboo, could shell out another $495 million to investors in the biotech if its gene therapies reach the market. Bamboo was spun off in 2014 from Asklepios Biopharmaceutical, a biotech founded by three University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, scientists with expertise in using adeno-associated viruses to deliver genes that teach cells how to make missing or improperly functioning proteins. Through the purchase, Pfizer gains preclinical and clinical gene therapies, many of which complement the drug firm’s growing rare disease pipeline. For example, the deal brings Pfizer a therapy that could deliver a gene sequence to prompt the production of dystrophin, a protein missing in people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Pfizer already has a myostatin inhibitor, which could promote muscle growth