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Novartis acquires Arctos Medical to develop gene therapy programme

September 22, 2021

Novartis have announced that it has acquired Arctos Medical, adding a pre-clinical optogenetics-based Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) gene therapy programme and Arctos’ proprietary technology to its ophthalmology portfolio. The acquisition aims to more efficiently develop treatments for patients with vision loss and for the potential of optogenetics as the basis of successful therapeutics.

Arctos developed its technology as a potential method for treating inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) and other diseases that involve photoreceptor loss, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Existing gene therapy treatments aim to correct a specific gene, so only a small subset of patients can benefit.

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