UniQure is selling its only US manufacturing site to viral vector CDMO Genezen for $25 million, as the gene therapy biotech continues to trim operations.
The Lexington, MA, site makes uniQure’s hemophilia B gene therapy Hemgenix, which the FDA approved in November 2022. Hemgenix manufacturing will continue at the site and thus will be outsourced to Genezen. The “majority” of employees at the facility will be offered roles with the CDMO, according to a Monday release.
UniQure has been scaling back operations, with the company laying off staff and cutting research and technology projects late last year. Its chief scientific officer also left, and a research lab, also in Lexington, was closed.
At that time, the biotech said its overall cost cutting was designed to save it $180 million over the next three years and bring its runway into the second quarter of 2027. At the end of March this year, uniQure had $555.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and investment securities, according to its first-quarter earnings report.
By divesting the Lexington site, uniQure expects to save $40 million annually and anticipates paying off around $50 million in debt. The deal leaves uniQure with one analytical development site in Amsterdam and an R&D facility in Basel, Switzerland.
UniQure expects to receive $12.5 million in stocks and another $12.5 million in a convertible note from Genezen. UniQure CEO Matt Kapusta will join Genezen’s board of directors upon closing the deal, which is expected in the third quarter of 2024.
In May last year, uniQure got up to $400 million after it sold parts of Hemgenix royalties to two investment firms, HealthCare Royalty and Sagard Healthcare.
Hemgenix was developed by uniQure, which then tapped CSL Behring to head up commercialization efforts. Hemgenix is the first gene therapy FDA-approved for the bleeding disorder hemophilia B.