Aerpio and Gossamer Bio Announce License Agreement

Gossamer Bio, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, is planning to continue its inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment success streak with a new license agreement in the space.

On Monday (June 25) Aerpio Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:ARPO) announced an exclusive license agreement with Gossamer Bio for AKB-4924, now called GB004 with Gossamer. The agreement could bring sales milestones of Aerpio up to US$400 million, including US$20 million as an upfront payment, potential development, regulatory, sales milestones, and royalties on worldwide sales paid by Gossamer.

Gossamer is responsible for remaining and future development, regulatory and commercialization expenses for the drug candidate.

“Gossamer is the ideal partner to maximize the potential of GB004 in IBD,” Stephen Hoffman, CEO of Aerpio said in the press release. “The Gossamer team has a demonstrated track record of successful therapeutic development in IBD.”

GB004 is an investigational hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha stabilizer in development which was found to be safe and well-tolerated in its Phase 1 clinical trial. Another Phase 1 clinical trial was initiated in May 2018 as a multiple ascending dose study—the previous being a single ascending dose study—to further assess the pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability of the drug candidate.

Unlike other HIF stabilizers, GB004 has shown to stimulate erythropoiesis and heal anti-inflammatory and mucosal wounds in animal models with IBD. The candidate may have the potential for several advantages over the current therapies for IBD such as a once-daily routine administration, and superior efficacy and safety profile.

Gossamer’s CEO shared the company assessed numerous licensing opportunities but it was Aerpio’s drug which “presents an important addition to the Gossamer portfolio,” validating Aerpio’s technology.

Gossamer was launched in early January 2018 and is focused on discovering, developing and commercializing immunology-based therapeutics for autoimmune, allergy/inflammation, immuno-oncology and fibrosis disease areas.

The team who developed Gossamer proved to be a competitor in the IBD space when it sold the company Receptors along with an IBD indication drug Ozanimod, which Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG) is now developing for relapsing multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

This biopharmaceutical company is focused on developing treatments for ocular diseases, such as with its lead product candidate AKB-9778, which is a small molecule in development as a treatment for diabetic retinopathy.

Investor Takeaway

Since the news Monday, Aerpio’s share price increased 17.86 percent as of market close to $4.95.

Aerpio Pharmaceuticals joined the public market last August. Since then the share price has decreased 30 percent but is currently back on the rise. Keen investors interested in the company can follow the company’s news for updates on its current Phase 1 multiple ascending dose study for the drug now licensed to Gossamer.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle Lakusta, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.