Sangamo set to earn more than $160 million in ALS deal

Sangamo Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SGMO) saw its share rise 6.13% to $18.62 in mid-morning trading, after it revealed it had entered into a new collaboration that could earn it more than $160 million.

Sangamo said it has entered into a collaboration with pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) for the development of a potential gene therapy using zinc finger protein transcription factors (ZFP-TFs) to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) linked to mutations of the C9ORF72 gene.

ALS and FTLD are part of a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders caused by mutations in the C9ORF72 gene that involve hundreds of additional repetitions of a six base pair sequence of DNA. This ultimately leads to the deterioration of motor neurons, in the case of ALS, or neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes, in the case of FTLD. Currently, there are no cures to halt or reverse the progression of ALS or FTLD. The C9ORF72 mutation is linked to approximately one-third of cases of familial ALS.