UNITY Biotechnology Announces Exclusive License Agreement with Jocasta Neuroscience to Continue Development of α-Klotho Program
December 20 2021 - 8:00AM
UNITY Biotechnology, Inc. (“UNITY”) [NASDAQ: UBX], a biotechnology
company developing therapeutics to slow, halt, or reverse diseases
of aging, today announced it has signed an exclusive agreement
licensing its α-Klotho asset to Jocasta Neuroscience, Inc. for
development and commercialization.
The α-Klotho protein is a circulating factor
associated with improved cognitive performance in preclinical
studies. α-Klotho is hypothesized to optimize synaptic
neurotransmission of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the
brain, effectively combatting the cognitive and synaptic deficits,
despite high levels of pathogenic Ab, tau, and phosphorylated tau
proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Since first licensing the α-Klotho asset from
UCSF to explore its potential utility in cognitive disorders and
other age-related diseases, I’m proud of the team’s hard work in
further advancing the program, and we are pleased to now enter into
this agreement with Jocasta,” said Anirvan Ghosh, Ph.D., chief
executive officer of UNITY. “This deal allows us to support the
continued development of the α-Klotho asset in a capital-efficient
manner and share significantly in the upside economics, while
focusing UNITY’s resources to advance our lead UBX1325 program,
which has several key readouts in 2022.”
Under the terms of the agreement, UNITY will
receive an upfront cash payment from Jocasta, as well as additional
payments based on development milestones, approval milestones, and
sales-based royalties, per indication.
In May 2019, the Company exclusively licensed
the α-Klotho asset from University of California, San Francisco
("UCSF") for certain patents and know-how rights related to
α-Klotho. Under the license agreement, Jocasta Neuroscience is, in
addition to the payments due to the Company, required to make all
payments due to UCSF from UNITY under the UCSF License.
About UNITY
UNITY is developing a new class of therapeutics
to slow, halt, or reverse diseases of aging. UNITY’s current focus
is on creating medicines to selectively eliminate or modulate
senescent cells and thereby provide transformative benefit
in age-related ophthalmologic and neurologic diseases.
More information is available
at www.unitybiotechnology.com or follow us
on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking
statements including statements related to UNITY’s understanding of
cellular senescence and the role it plays in diseases of aging, the
potential for UNITY to develop therapeutics to slow, halt, or
reverse diseases of aging, including for ophthalmologic and
neurologic diseases, our expectations regarding potential benefits,
activity, effectiveness, and safety of UBX1325, the expected timing
of results of our studies of UBX1325, the timing of the expected
commencement, progression, and conclusion of our studies including
those of UBX1325, and the potential for UNITY to share in the
upside economics in the development of the α-Klotho asset. These
statements involve substantial known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results,
levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially
different from the information expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements, including the risk that
the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic may continue to
negatively impact the development of preclinical and clinical drug
candidates, including delaying or disrupting the enrollment of
patients in clinical trials, risks relating to the uncertainties
inherent in the drug development process, and risks relating to
UNITY’s understanding of senescence biology. We may not actually
achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our
forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance
on our forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could
differ materially from the plans, intentions, and expectations
disclosed in the forward-looking statements we make. The
forward-looking statements in this press release represent our
views as of the date of this release. We anticipate that subsequent
events and developments will cause our views to change. However,
while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at
some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so
except to the extent required by applicable law. You should,
therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as
representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of
this release. For a further description of the risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those
expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks
relating to the business of UNITY in general, see UNITY’s most
recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter
ended September 30, 2021, filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on November 10, 2021, as well as
other documents that may be filed by UNITY from time to time with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Media
Canale Communications
Jason Spark
Jason.spark@canalecomm.com
UNITY Biotechnology (NASDAQ:UBX)
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