{"id":14459,"date":"2021-09-22T09:20:40","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T07:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/university-of-bern-spin-off-arctos-medical-acquired-by-novartis\/"},"modified":"2023-07-04T13:40:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T11:40:21","slug":"university-of-bern-spin-off-arctos-medical-acquired-by-novartis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/university-of-bern-spin-off-arctos-medical-acquired-by-novartis\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Bern spin-off Arctos Medical acquired by Novartis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than two million people globally experience progressive vision loss from genetic diseases called inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs). Often resulting in complete blindness, these diseases are caused by mutations in many different genes \u2013 but existing treatments target a single gene responsible for vision loss in a small number of patients.<\/p>\n

Based in Liebefeld (canton of Bern), Arctos<\/a> is developing technology for the treatment of blindness associated with retinal degenerative diseases, based on the work of its scientific founders, Drs. Sonja Kleinlogel and Michiel van Wyk of the University of Bern.<\/p>\n

The therapeutic approach is to create \u201creplacement photoreceptors\u201d with an optogene delivered to and expressed in specific retinal cells using adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy technology.<\/p>\n

Swiss drugmaker Novartis<\/a>\u00a0has announced its acquisition of Arctos Medical with the aim of boosting its efforts to find treatments for severe vision loss.<\/p>\n

A promising therapeutic approach<\/h4>\n

“We are thrilled that Novartis recognizes the potential value and differentiated profile of Arctos\u2019 unique optogenetics technology,\u201d said Kostas Kaloulis, CEO of Arctos and venture partner at +ND Capital. \u201cAs a global ophthalmology leader, Novartis is ideally positioned to rapidly advance our program into the clinic. We look forward to progressing the technology to deliver transformative therapies for underserved patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

A University of Bern<\/a> spin-off, Arctos Medical was the first Swiss gene therapy company. Later identified and incubated by +ND Capital, as part of its company creation program, Arctos was supported by Novartis Venture Fund through a Series A financing round led by +ND Capital<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arctos Medical, a University of Bern spin-off developing optogenetic therapies for treating blindness, was acquired by Novartis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[833],"tags":[912,954,911],"class_list":["post-14459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-science","tag-biotech","tag-gene-therapy","tag-pharma"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUniversity of Bern spin-off Arctos Medical acquired by Novartis - Greater Geneva Bern area<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/university-of-bern-spin-off-arctos-medical-acquired-by-novartis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"University of Bern spin-off Arctos Medical acquired by Novartis - 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