Kriya acquires NASH drug developer Tramontane

Acquisitive US biotech Kriya Therapeutics yesterday revealed that it has acquired Tramontane Therapeutics, a private gene therapy company focused on developing treatments for metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.

Tramontane, a spin out from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kriya.

With the transaction, financial terms of which have not been disclosed, Kriya acquires a portfolio of fibroblast growth Factor 21 (FGF21) assets including Tramontane’s lead program, an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector designed to express a steady level of the native FGF21 protein. FGF21 has beneficial metabolic effects across several target organs including the liver. Importantly, FGF21 has been established as a clinically-validated biological target in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which Kriya has prioritized as its lead FGF21 program.