BX Blackstone Inc

By Colin Kellaher

Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Blackstone Group Inc.'s (BX) life-sciences business on Monday said they will invest $570 million in a bid to develop a novel gene therapy for bladder cancer.

The companies said Ferring has launched a new unit, FerGene, to focus on the global development and U.S. commercialization of nadofaragene firadenovec, which is in late-stage development for high-grade, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin unresponsive, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Blackstone Life Sciences, the life-sciences arm of New York private-equity firm Blackstone, will invest $400 million in FerGene, while privately held Ferring, a Swiss biopharmaceutical group, will invest up to $170 million and will also potentially launch and commercialize the drug outside of U.S., the companies said.

Ferring and Blackstone said nadofaragene firadenovec, which is currently in late Phase 3 development, has been granted breakthrough therapy designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has also accepted and granted priority review for the drug's biologics license application.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2019 12:29 ET (17:29 GMT)

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