Genovis soars, as it enters exclusive license accord with Selecta Biosciences

Massachusetts, USA-based biotech Selecta Biosciences (Nasdaq: SELB) today announced a strategic licensing agreement to advance a next-generation IgG protease with Genovis (GENO: ST), a Swedish enzyme technology company, whose shares shot up 38% to 82.50 Swedish kronor. Selecta’s shares were up 1.31% at $3.94 during the market session.

This partnership leverages Genovis’ proprietary immunoglobulin G (IgG) protease, IdeXork (Xork), and Selecta’s ImmTOR platform to enable the dosing of transformative gene therapies in patients with pre-existing adeno-associated virus (AAV) immunity and treat certain IgG-mediated autoimmune diseases.

Most IgG proteases are derived from human pathogens and have a high prevalence of pre-existing antibodies. Xork is derived from a Streptococcal bacterial strain that does not infect humans. The pre-clinical data generated to date highlights Xork’s differentiated profile - demonstrating very low cross-reactivity with naturally occurring antibodies in human sera while retaining efficient and specific cleavage of human IgG antibodies.