BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

AskBio answers investors’ call

Why AskBio finally took venture money to invest in its own gene therapy pipeline

April 12, 2019 10:47 PM UTC

Since 2001, gene therapy company Asklepios has subsisted chiefly on cash from licensing deals or transaction fees on programs sold off to biopharmas. Now, with $225 million in new series A funding from TPG Capital and Vida Ventures -- plus another $10 million from board members and company management -- the company is seeking to control its own pipeline and develop its own therapies for neuromuscular, CNS and cardiovascular indications.

“This is a team that has opted to build their business by developing products and selling them off, and reinvesting the proceeds,” Vida’s Fred Cohen told BioCentury. “We had a discussion about whether they wanted to continue to do that, which clearly they could, or whether to grow to be a fully integrated biotech company.”...