Chiesi takes rights to Arbor’s hyperoxaluria program: Deals Report

Gene editing company Arbor has relied on a partnership-heavy model for much of its nine-year lifespan, but Monday’s deal with Chiesi represents a bigger step than most, as the Italian pharma took global rights to the biotech’s most advanced clinical program.

Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. is paying privately held Arbor Biotechnologies Inc. $115 million in upfront and near-term payments for worldwide rights to ABO-101, a treatment designed to disable the function of the HAO1 gene in the liver and treat hyperoxaluria. Designed as a single-administration therapy, ABO-101 is in the Phase I/II redePHine study, which began in June; it is Arbor’s first and only program in the clinic...